Balod/Raipur
Dondi, a block in Balod district of central Chhattisgarh, is dominated by the Halba tribe. The Halbas, mostly found in Chhattisgarh, are also present in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh besides Maharashtra and Odisha.
Halba tribal Damini Thakur, a Class 9 student of Swami Atmanand School Kusumkasa, is a resident of Dondi. Last month, Damini, along with her classmate Garima Ganwre, developed an innovative model which can drive away elephants and protect crops. The model was showcased at the Balod tech fest, organised last month.
The fest tested the innovation skill of students in science, engineering and start-ups. As many as 200 models made by students from several schools of Balod were on display during these two days.
In Chhattisgarh, Balod district has 38 Atal Tinkering labs in schools, the highest in the state. The labs are funded by the Government of India’s Atal Innovation Mission.
NOVEL IDEA
Both Damini and Garima explained that their model is based on the concept of early detection system through which the presence of elephants could be ascertained and attacks prevented.
Like most of Chhattisgarh, Balod has a vast forest area and is prone to human-wildlife conflicts. To prevent elephant attacks, sometimes elephant-proof trenches are made but these are often life-threatening for the animals.
“Our model has a sensor as well as a camera. It will help farmers sense the presence of elephants from a distance. It also comes with a buzzer which goes off to scare elephants,” Damini said.
In making the model, the girls received assistance from their teacher Thamsingh Parker, who is also a tribal. Parker teaches Physics from classes 9 to 12. “In my school, most students are from the tribal community though non-tribals are also there,” he said.
Daily, Damini walks to school from her home which takes 15 minutes. “The forest here is dense. But when I went to Surguja where the human-elephant conflict is even more grave, I realised the importance of the issue and gave much thought to it,” she pointed out, Her family comprises parents and an elder sister.
According to Garima, elephants are spotted in the villages and people rely on firecrackers to drive the animals away. The primary aim is crop protection as most people are into paddy cultivation. The girl lives in Gundratola, which is a part of Kusumkasa village.
“The model relies on an alarm system to scare away elephants as raids are frequent. The sensor starts beeping on its own after it detects elephants from a distance,” Garima explained.
Agranshu Dwivedi, a start-up mentor with the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises in Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh was impressed by the sensor model which he saw displayed at the tech fest. He is based in Bhilai.
Dwivedi recalled that he came across a somewhat similar model at a farmers’ fair in Madhya Pradesh. “But the device developed by these two students is an automatic one and comes attached with a camera whereas the other model was manual. Night vison cameras can help detect animal presence.”
He also works with the IITs and is the chief executive officer of the Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, the state agriculture university of Chhattisgarh, based in Raipur. The varsity has a start-up incubation centre for developing business models related to agriculture. “I will help these students to develop this model for use in future,” he said.
TACKLING ELEPHANTS
Development has somewhat eluded Dondi as it is densely forested. It was here that the movie Newton was filmed. “As a precautionary measure, sometimes, elephants are being pushed towards Jharkhand. From the district headquarters, the forest area starts just within eight km,” Parker informed.
Forest guard Mukesh Yadav pointed out that human-elephant conflict is big in Surguja, about 421 km away from Balod, where there are 20 to 30 cases in a month.
“In Balod, there were a few cases last year. Dondi and Gurur blocks are the most affected. Elephants come to Balod from the Keregaon forest range in Dhamtari district in search of paddy for which they have developed a taste. In the evening, the animals come out of jungles and enter paddy fields. The animals sometimes move towards Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra,” Yadav said.
In Chhattisgarh, Hathi Mitra Dals are active in many districts. Their main objective is to tackle human-elephant conflict. Prabhat Dubey, based in Surguja, imparts training to members of Hathi Mitra Dals across the state. “In Balod too, I trained Hathi Mitra members two years back and for that stayed there for a considerable time. Elephants from Jharkhand enter the northern and central Chhattisgarh regions.”
Dubey talked about the Chanda herd which gave people sleepless nights before being collared in Mahasamund district nearby Raipur. Now, the animals are possibly in Maharashtra. The herd was named thus after its matriarch Chanda. “However, more than herds, sub-adult elephants are more dangerous. Herds damage crops but are less violent in nature.”
There are an estimated 30,000 elephants in India, as per the last 2017 Census. Many states like Jharkhand, West Bengal and Karnataka are highly impacted by human-elephant conflict where attacks, deaths and injuries apart from huge crop losses rule the day.
