Police used to fire their guns and locals would keep vigil throughout the night to chase away the elephants. Patrolling with domesticated elephants also did not work and the wild elephants destroyed crops worth millions in the past five months.[break]
But the use of a rope painted with paste made from a mixture of 10 liters of used engine oil and one kilogram of tobacco and chilli powder has done the trick since Friday. The method, used successfully in India recently, was tried out after repeated efforts by locals and by Bardiya National Park, which deployed six elephants and 23 staffers for the purpose, failed to bear fruit.
“We tried many things to chase away the elephants but to no avail. We had not hoped that they could be warded off so easily,” Chief Conservation Officer at Bardiya National Park, Tika Ram Adhikari, said, adding that the technique was being tried in Nepal for the first time.
Adhikari said the elephants were repelled by the strong smell of the paste and claimed that one kilometer of rope can be painted with paste at a cost of Rs 1,000. It was more effective than an electric fence.
The wild elephants had displaced many families from Bhimapur. “We would have been spared huge losses if the national park had used this ploy at the beginning,” said 60-year-old Nageshwar Prasad Sahni, who has returned to his house destroyed by the elephants.
Locals of Bhimapur and Khairi Chandanpur are still not sure if the elephants have been repelled by the odor of the paste or it is just a coincidence, but they are delighted. “We are delighted that expenditure of just Rs 1,000 has stopped the elephants,” Bishnu Rizal, a local, said.
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