Chain Linked Mesh Puts Brakes On Tigers From Straying Out Of Forests In Nagarahole, Bandipur
The gap in between the rail fence was used by tigers/leopards to stray to villages and prey on domestic animals such as cows/livestock
BENGALURU: After the latest addition of Chain Linked Mesh to existing rail fence on the borders of Antarasante range of Nagarhole National Park, a tiger reserve, in Heggadadevana Kote (HD) taluk of Mysuru district, incidents of tigers straying out of the Reserve has come down significantly and the range reported no cattle kills in the last couple of months.
Forest department took to rail barricade the forest borders using discarded rail tracks to prevent straying of elephants out of the Park/Reserves close to a decade while herbivore animals such as spotted deer, wild boars among others used the gap in between the rail fence to cross over to the nearby fields to graze on agricultural crops. The gap in between the rail fence was used by tigers/leopards to stray to villages and prey on domestic animals such as cows/livestock.
To counter the straying of wild animals, forest officials began to add chain linked mesh to the rail fence in November last year and the idea worked to effectively check the straying of wild animals and also prevent livestock from entering the Park/Reserve to graze inside the forest areas.
“A distance of 7-kms of Chain Linked Mesh has been added and prior to it, there used to be cattle kills of about 20 especially in September. Now, no reports of cattle kills have been reported in the range in the last 3 months where Chain Linked Mesh covered the areas,” said Assistant Conservator of Forest Madhu.
The villages of Hunasekuppe, Damanakatte Hadi, Hosahalli among many others are close to the forest borders covered with Chain Link Mesh and the works on chain link mesh was taken-up and completed under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives.
A Range Forest Officer of Antrasante Siddaraju shared that the Integrated Barricade System helped reduce man-animal conflicts in the vicinity. Besides, the Chain Linked Mesh helped avert spread of Foot-and-Mouth disease from domestic animals to wild animals can also be tackled.
In Bandipur, Chain Linked Mesh has been added to rail fence for about 2.5 kms at Kalanamunti of Hediyala range of the Bandipur National Park and forest officials stated “The Chain Linked Mesh proved effective to stop straying of spotted deer, wild boars and even elephants have stopped straying to nearby villages on the periphery of the Park.
A villager on the periphery of Antarasante range stated “Wild animals do stray to nearby villages which are uncovered by Chain Linked Mesh.”