Madras HC seeks state forest dept's response on plea to dig trenches, solar fences to ward off wild animals from entering villages

Madurai (Tamil Nadu) [India], March 11 : Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday sought a report from the state forest department to a public interest litigation petition seeking a direction to authorities to trenches and solar fencing near forest boundaries in Kadayam, Courtallam and Kadayanallur in order to prevent wild animals from entering villages areas and protect villagers and crops from wild animal attacks.
A bench of Justices Subramanian and Victoria Gowri issued notices to the concerned authorities and directed them to file their report by April 10 the next hearing to a filed by Vincent, president of a Farmer Producer's Group in Tirunelveli district.
"The people of this area mainly rely on agriculture for their livelihood. Their major agricultural products include rice, coconut, mango, banana and sugarcane. However, these areas face human-wildlife conflicts, which have increased recently. With both people and crops vulnerable to attacks by wild animals, mainly elephants, wild boars and bears so villagers have lost their livelihoods or become permanently disabled, villagers were fed up demanding compensation for crop damage and money to treat injuries caused by livestock," the petitioner said.
Further, the petitioner said that despite several representations made to the concerned authorities, no action was taken.