Solar-powered water trough comes up along elephant corridor in Gudiyatham 

Increasing elephant migration into the reserve forest led to the measure

Soaring temperature is tough, not just for people but also for wild animals, especially elephants as they trespass into human habitations away from their traditional routes along Kalapadi reserve forest in Gudiyatham near Vellore.

Now, forest officials have come up with a novel way of tapping solar power to run motor pump set, which will fill two water troughs on both sides of the corridor for elephants to move to Hosur and Erode from Koundinya Wildlife Sanctuary in neighbouring Chittoor (Andhra Pradesh).

“The elephant migration into the reserve forest has been on the rise, especially in the last decade. Solar-powered water troughs are cost-effective and can be run anytime in the day. The initiative will be expanded to other reserve forests,” Mr. Prince Kumar, District Forest Officer (DFO), Vellore, told The Hindu. At present, the Vellore forest division has over 19 reserve forest (RF) areas, including Arasampattu, Athiyur, Apukkal, Palamathi and Panamadagi, covering around 90,000 hectares. Unlike other ranges, the Gudiyatham range has an elephant corridor due to its proximity with Koundinya Sanctuary in Chittoor.

As a result, herds of elephants travel through dense RFs like Pichannur, Veera Chatti Patti, Parathami extension and Kalapadi, before moving to Mordhana dam on the edge of these forest areas. Forest officials said the number of elephants migrating to these forests have been on the rise for the past few years, mainly due to its population growth. For example, only 15 elephants migrated to these areas in 2016 from the sanctuary as against 46 in 2021.

Officials said the increase in the migration of elephants has necessitated restriction of its movement to forest areas alone rather than allowing them to venture into human habitations. For instance, the compensation for crop damage has increased from 47 claims in 2017-18 to 76 claims in 2021-22.

Against this backdrop, forest officials said solar-powered water troughs have been introduced in Kalapadi RF, one of the three RFs in Gudiyatham range, covering around 15,000 hectares of land. “With a ramp, the new one-feet deep water trough will allow elephants into the trough. The circumference of the new facility is nine metres. Fresh water will be discharged into the trough on alternate days,” said Mr. Saravanan Babu, Forest Range Officer (Gudiyatham). The water trough is located at the centre of the RF with at least 20 km away to the nearest waterholes, like streams and ponds. Similar solar-powered water troughs will be coming up in Sarinagunda and Amburanpatti forests within Gudiyatham range soon, officials said.