VALPARAI, India — Frequent interactions between humans and wildlife define life in Valparai, a town in India’s Tamil Nadu state, where the surrounding dense forests of the Western Ghats are fragmented by sprawling tea estates. These forests are home to elephants, Indian bison, bears and leopards, which frequently traverse the area. The relationship between wildlife and the local community is difficult, with the latter often suffering property damage, injuries, and even loss of life.
To address these challenges, the Tamil Nadu Forest Department has introduced a smart virtual fencing system powered by solar energy. Under the Tamil Nadu Innovation Initiative (TANII), 1,300 standalone solar-powered units have been installed across Valparai — 700 in the Valparai forest range and 600 in the Manomboly range — for the equivalent of about $350,000.
This invisible barrier, equipped with infrared sensors, activates an alarm and flashing lights whenever any movement is detected near the system, aiming to alert people of nearby animals and deter wildlife from approaching human settlements.
Valparai has tried out other early-warning systems before, such as bulk SMS alerts, voice call alerts, TV scrolls and red-light alerts, which have all helped to a degree. According to the Nature Conservation Foundation, these measures reduced the average number of casualties per year from three to one. The solar-powered virtual fence builds on these efforts, offering a more dynamic and real-time system to alert people about the presence of wildlife in their vicinity.
While the system has shown promise, challenges remain. Some residents question its reliability, pointing out issues like malfunctioning units and wildlife becoming accustomed to the alarms. This video explores the successes, limitations and broader implications of the innovative renewable-energy-based approach to human-wildlife conflict management.
This video was produced by the Mongabay India team; find more environmental stories from India on their YouTube channel.
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Banner image: Solar fence system. Image ©Narayana Swamy.
Transcript
Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.
Wildlife encounters are common in Valparai,
a town in Tamil Nadu’s Western Ghats.
After all, elephants, bison, bears and leopards
live and pass through this town
and the forests surrounding it,
which are fragmented by the hill station’s
famous tea estates.
Interactions between people and animals,
especially elephants,
often lead to property damage, injuries
and even deaths.
To keep both parties safe from each other,
in 2024, the Tamil Nadu Forest Department
installed a “smart virtual fencing system”,
a sort of invisible barrier
powered by solar energy.
So, this system, basically, triggers
the moment something that crosses,
and it gives out an alarm.
The strategically placed posts
use sensors to detect animal movement.
The alarm goes off, and lights flash.
The system is programmed to function daily
from 6 p.m to 6 a.m,
the hours when wildlife becomes
active near human settlements.
It aims to not only alert people,
but also deter wildlife.
They put it in
some of the very important parts
which has been identified
for elephants to cross.
They have been advised to
stay indoors if they hear the trigger.
So, in that way now people are able to get
a sense of something is moving around.
Ganesh is not part of the smart
fencing project.
However, he has worked in the landscape
for over a decade,
studying elephants and implementing other
systems for human-elephant coexistence.
Early-warning systems implemented
by the Nature Conservation Foundation
in collaboration with the forest department,
such as red-light alert systems,
SMS, and voice call alerts,
have proven life-saving for residents.
The organization claims that since 2002,
technological intervention
has reduced the annual average human deaths
from about three to less than one,
with some years having no deaths recorded.
Now, we feel a bit safer,
as we are aware of animal presence.
Earlier, we used to go out without
knowing if there was any danger.
The children mostly complete their
schooling in Valparai town.
So, after tuition, school students would return home late,
and we would feel unsafe.
But now, thanks to the [virtual solar fence] system,
we don’t feel scared,
as it alerts us about animals in the area.
Valparai has 700
such solar-powered units.
News reports suggest 1,300 units
have been installed in
the Anamalai Tiger Reserve
landscape for 2.99 crores (about $350,000).
For a terrain like Valparai,
which frequently experiences
power cuts due to grid failures
and unpredictable weather,
integrating the virtual fence
with solar energy was a prudent decision.
If you are going to again pull grids,
you have to invest
a lot more and pull a lot of cables,
again, you will be cutting across trees
and various other things
for those wires to cross,
you will be chopping off
various things. That is not necessary.
Dependence on solar energy makes the units mobile,
allowing them to be placed strategically
where there is sufficient sunlight.
It makes the system independent
of the grid and power cuts.
You have the post.
That post has access to good sunlight.
And that is also in a place
where elephants are known to cross,
because those are critical places.
Our priority is the location
where those units are put.
Because functioning on solar is a great benefit,
we are not dependent on wondering
where to pull wires out of.
While the system got off to a good start,
not everyone finds the result reliable.