His father was among a group of people living in the fringe areas of Manas National Park who had to face continuous encounters with wild elephants coming out from the Park area. These people had planted these thorny trees to prevent these elephants from entering the villages in search of food. This they did with hopes of some additional income from the bio-fencing.
This innovation, something different and experimental at that time, chalked out by these poor and relatively illiterate tribal families to mitigate human-elephant conflict had immediately proved to be productive and effective. Herds of wild elephants, finding it difficult to cross the thorny growth of lemon trees often diverted their route in search of food. The income they could generate from selling the fruits was an additional benefit.
This low cost and productive method of mitigating human - elephant conflict instantly gained popularity among the tribal people living in the fringe areas of the entire National Park in Lower Assam covering several districts including Chirang, Barpeta and Baksa. People in these areas also started planting lemon trees around their villages and houses. Rows of lemon trees planted along village boundaries situated in the adjoining areas of Manas National Park have now acted as unique bio-fencing and minimized human-elephant conflicts to a great extent.
“When we were very small, we often had the experience of man-elephant conflict, particularly during winter. Herds of wild elephants coming out from the forest used to take the lives of at least 25-30 people a year. But, after the plantation, the occurance of such incidents came down drastically,” says Gayari, a father of two. Favourable soil and climatic conditions for the growth of this citrus fruit has inspired them to go for plantations covering larger areas.
Expedition of wild elephants into poor farmers’ agriculture is a common phenomenon in most parts of Assam particularly during winter. However, they are mostly lured by the smell of rice beer prepared in tribal pockets and enter the villages. Tribal people brew rice beer almost on a daily basis and experts are of the opinion that elephants can smell this locally prepared rice beer from a long distance.
Gayari says that the low cost involved in the process of growing a lemon plantation has encouraged more and more people to adopt this measure. One just needs a pruning from the original tree to have a separate plant. It does not require much effort, manure and nourishment. Plants start yielding fruit a year after they are planted.
However, despite the boom in production of lemon in the entire locality, farmers, mostly living below the poverty line, used to get relatively low price for their productions due to lack of a proper market system and people’s ignorance about the market price. “The price per pon (80 pieces) of lemon varies between Rs. 10/ and Rs. 35/. When there is plenty of production, the price falls even lesser,” says Jambo Musahari, another farmer and a father of two, who has a lemon plantation of 2 bighas.
Inspired by this innovative and traditional knowledge of these tribal people, the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) in Baksa district has come out with an ambitious plan of a plantation of 17,00,000 lemon trees in the bordering areas of Mansa National Park, to act as a biological-fence. The project initiated in Basbari Forest Range of Manas National Park of the district is expected to check the loss of human lives and property through elephant depredations.
“Under the project, started in July 2010, 300,000 seedlings have already been planted in the Forest Range along the electric fencing covering an area of five kilometers under the NREGA work. Altogether 30,000 person days have been created under the project so far,” says Hitesh Ch. Sharma Project Director DRDA. “The project also aims at providing proper market linkage to the farmers, setting up of a lemon nursery and an effective management system involving village people to benefit the farmers,” Sharma adds.
The issue of human-elephant conflict has become a major socio-economic and political concern in Assam. According to statistics tabled before the floor of the Assam Assembly on March 5 last year, altogether 499 persons have been killed between 2001 and January 2010 due to human-elephant conflict. Similarly, over a hundred elephants have been killed in different incidents. According to the 2008 census, the elephant population in Assam is 5,281. The state has five Project Elephants covering an area of 21 Forest Divisions and 208 Reserved Forests. However, elephants are long ranging animal and are not confined to only forest areas. Influx of human to elephant corridor areas and increased contact between humans and elephants has added to an increased number of conflicts. Additionally, harmful methods adopted by people in the process have also resulted in the death and injury of wild elephants. The innovative idea of biological fencing developed by tribal people living in areas bordering Manas National Park and the successful implementation of the DRDA project in Baksa district is likely bring an end to this menace in the coming days through the expansion of such activities to other areas.