Community-Based Seasonal Electric Fences for Human-Elephant Coexistence

Community-based seasonal electric fences effectively prevent raiding of seasonal crops by elephants. However, their success is contingent on a number of inter-related factors such as community ownership and involvement, fence location and design, material quality, construction standards and maintenance. Farmers deploy the fences on the perimeter of cultivated fields when commencing cultivation, maintain them, dismantle them at harvest and store them till the next cultivation season. Farmers also bear part of the material cost and set up a maintenance fund for future exigencies. We describe the basic fence design, material specifications, how to prepare a bill of quantities and an effective implementation protocol, discussing relevant issues.