2020 batch Indian Forest Service officer Anshuman Rajhans has shared an ingenuous idea to avert human-elephant conflicts in villages near elephant corridors.
In a post on X, he has shared a photo of a fence with bee hives hanging from it in a line, like flower pots, adding an aesthetic touch and brightening up the, otherwise, dull fence. People who would normally pass by it would now take a second look.
Only on careful scrutiny would they realise, much to their disbelief, that these are not brightly coloured decorative flower pots, but bee boxes swarming with bees.
Their buzzing is heard even before they are seen. In fact, it is this ‘buzzing’ that keeps the wild elephants away, as the gentle giants are apparently scared of this sound. Hence, they keep distance from the fence, and people or cultivation on the other side of the fence are safe. These bee box fences help farmers and local villagers to kill two birds with one stone – keep elephants at bay, and get an additional income through the selling of the honey.
Here is the officer’s post:
It is actually bee-box fencing for warding off elephants 🐘.Elephants are afraid of bees. Bee-box fencing not only help in mitigating Human-Elephant Conflict but also in livelihood generation for the village communities. pic.twitter.com/tijOuYEF6B
— Anshuman IFS (@RajhansAnshuman) January 17, 2024
