Learn Connect And Save Yourself From The Blue Bull Aka Neel Gai
Indo-Gangetic planes and other central parts of the nation are seriously fighting with continuous attacks by wild blue bulls popularly known as Neel Gai. Due to various wildlife provisions and centuries-old law, it is always a mammoth task to get rid of huge losses on a social and economic level by these wild animals. There is a project by WWF India in Terai Landscape of West UP which may become a ray of hope for the farmers as it opens a feasible path of fencing.
With a present size of 1.32 billion, India currently supports nearly 17.84 per cent of the world population, with 2.4 per cent land resources and 4 per cent of water resources. It is also noted that about 15-25 per cent potential crop production is lost due to pests, weeds, and diseases. These indeed are challenging times. The story merely starts here. A vast region of Indo-Gangetic plains and central parts of the nation is struggling with another menace which is not the pest but a well- built wild boar known as Neel Gai (popular name, though it is not a cow breed).
Every year in India, pests and diseases eat away on an average 15-25 per cent of food produced by the farmers, but there is no certain data available for damage done by these wild bulls! These are Asia’s largest antelopes; adult bucks stand 1.5m (5ft) at the shoulder and weigh about 300kg. In English, they are often called ‘blue bulls’ because of the bucks’ bluish hue.
Ravishankar, a farmer from Kaushambi district of UP says, ‘It is almost a decade since pulse cultivation has become a dream for us, we were not major pulse producers but we had enough to feed our children, then came this wild beast. Earlier they were not in numbers, but now when their group runs through a farm field it appears like it has just witnessed a tornado’. There may be various scattered efforts to fight from the menace but there may be a very feasible ray of hope by UP farmers from another region and due to another reason. Even a FICCI knowledge report quotes, “At a location in UP, farmers have observed that the menace of Neel Gai has reduced significantly the paddy crop."
World wildlife fund India has taken the initiative of Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) with more than 776 farmers (mostly marginal farmers) saving their farm produce from nearby forest region of Corbett national park.
Kehripur village in Uttar Pradesh shares its boundary with Amangarh Tiger Reserve, which has been declared a buffer of Corbett Tiger Reserve. In the recent past, farmers in Kehripurhave been losing their crops due to frequent raids by elephants and other herbivores. A rapid assessment survey by WWF-India in the area showed that the loss incurred was INR 40,000 per farmer, which is a substantial portion of a farm’s annual income.
Rohtash Singh, who owns a farm in an area of three hectares adjacent to the forest, used to lose crops from more than half the area when elephants visited his crop fields. Singh, along with other farmers in the area, made many efforts to guard the field –from makeshift watch towers to using firecrackers– but all of these proved to be ineffective.
With support from WWF-India, Rohtash Singh and other farmers set up a two kilometre long solar fence, which protects close to 100 hectares of agricultural land owned by 30 farmers.
The solar fence uses five strands of live wire, at a height of about six feet. While WWF provided the equipment support for the fence, the installation was carried out by the farmers themselves. The farmers also arranged the poles required for the entire fence from their farms. The maintenance and monitoring of the fence are also done by the community.
The solar fence installation has brought down Rohtash Singh’s loss to INR 6000. Although he still needs to maintain a night vigil, the hours have reduced from the entire night to merely 2 to 4 hours now.
“I was stuck in a vicious cycle of debt and thought I would never be able to recover the loss. The solar fence has enabled me to protect my crops due to reduced wildlife raids and therefore I’m able to save enough money, every month’’, Singh says.
Around 776 farmers in WWF-India’s Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) have similarly benefitted through the solar-fencing initiatives in seven villages in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh with a high number of negative human-wildlife interaction cases.
