In Kerala, disco lights keep jumbos off the farm floor

KOCHI: The swirling multicolour LED lights that give dance floors their zing have found a totally different use in Kerala’s Wayanad district. The forest department has deployed 360-degree rotating party lights in forest fringes to scare off wild elephants from human habitations, and it seems to have worked.
Officials said the lights had been successful in keeping stray jumbos at bay in the human-wildlife conflict hotspots of Chethalayam under the South Wayanad forest division.Measures like elephant proof trenches (EPTs), granite walls and solar fences had failed to check the menace in the area.
“We have installed 14 multicolour LED light units in Chethalayam range at spots where elephants had breached the EPTs and solar fences. It has proven to be an efficient deterrent so far; the areas have not reported any stray elephant incidents for the past one and a half months, despite it being the paddy harvest season,” P Renjith Kumar, South Wayanad divisional forest officer, said. Ajas K, a local farmer, said the lights had been found effective against wild boars too.
Chethalath forest range officer V Ratheesan said, “We installed the party lights after noticing that elephants had an aversion to strong lights.” He said the LED lights were cost-effective as well, with a unit of bulb and battery costing around Rs 4,000.
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