'Smart scarecrows' to keep wildlife away from Pilibhit villages

LUCKNOW: Solar fencing and trenches are passe. Tiger reserves in the country are deploying "

smart scarecrows

" to keep wildlife away from human habitations and mitigate human-animal conflicts.
Named '

Aniders

', an acronym for "animal intrusion detection and repellent system", these scarecrows use a combination of loud buzzes of sound and intense light to startle the target animal and push back its movement.
The Pilibhit forest division in UP has become the first in the state to deploy these 'Aniders'. It remains to be seen if the device can relieve the human population in the vicinity of

Pilibhit Tiger Reserve

(PTR), which faces the unique problem of "sugarcane tigers".
PTR has seen a sharp increase in its tiger population, from 23 tigers in 2014 (when the reserve was formed) to 72 in 2022, far exceeding the reserve's capacity to support 30 to 35 tigers. Due to this, about 40% of PTR's tigers habitually stray into agricultural areas, leading to human-wildlife conflicts.

It's been over a week since 10 of these solar-powered devices were placed at two villages, Mandaria and Dhankuni, in the social forestry division of Pilibhit, near the PTR, where tiger movement was reported recently.
The setups are monitored by Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) and the forest department. "WTI's field teams have not reported any further animal movement in and around these villages since the installation of 'Aniders'. However, it is too early to draw any conclusions. Monitoring of devices and forest fringe areas around the villages is on," Abhishek Ghosal of WTI said.