<h5>What is human-wildlife conflict?</h5>  <p>Have you ever come face to face with a wild animal while out and about? Imagine encountering a roaring lion while hanging out with your friend or clashing with a monkey while taking a walk! Chances are that you’ll never see a wild animal outside of a zoo or an animal sanctuary. But for many Indian farmers and villagers, running into elephants, monkeys, leopards, and tigers is common.
Human-wildlife conflict is the struggle that occurs when humans come into contact with wild animals. As you can imagine, a farmer finding a leopard in his chicken coop or monkeys in his banana orchard does not go well.</p> <h5>Why does human-wildlife conflict happen?</h5>  <p>One of the main causes of the human-wildlife conflict is that we have turned too many jungles into busy cities and towns. As a result, animals who used to stay in these jungles have nowhere to go. Unable to find food in their habitat, these desperate animals have no choice but to come prowling into human society to satisfy their hunger. 
People try a variety of things such as the use of poison, traps, electric fences, shooting, etc. to protect themselves. In India, the human-wildlife conflict is on the rise and each year thousands of humans and endangered animals get killed because of these encounters.</p> <h5>How are some farmers exploring kinder ways of resolving this conflict?</h5> <figure>
        <img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/newsahoot.appspot.com/o/how-farmers-are-using-technology-to-drive-away-wild-animals%2Ffarmers-technology-section-1.jpg?alt=media&token=c9b0002c-9a8d-4e8f-9cfa-980f974bb49e" alt="How are some farmers exploring kinder ways of resolving this conflict?" >
        <figcaption>Two scarecrows guarding a field. Photo by Zuzana Kacerova / Unsplash; https://unsplash.com/photos/j9Obgo7uKk4</figcaption>
      </figure> <p>Raghavendra Bhat has a farm just outside the city of Bengaluru that is constantly being raided by monkeys. He used to set traps to capture the intruders. Now he has installed a solar-powered motion-sensing speaker that plays the roars of lions, tigers, and even gunshot sounds when monkeys are around.
Malan Raut, a farmer in Maharashtra, had her crops ruined by floods in 2020. In 2021, deer destroyed them. She then installed a solar-powered scarecrow on her fields that blinks flashing lights all night. And guess what? No animals ate her crops after that!
In the Sonitpur district of Assam, the community installed non-lethal electric fences to protect their crops from elephants. Since then, the tensions between humans and elephants in this area have reduced significantly.</p> <h5>Great, so why isn’t everyone using technology to solve the human-wildlife conflict?</h5>  <p>These devices are very expensive. Most Indian farmers are poor and can barely afford two meals a day. Climate change has decreased their income even further. 
Animals are also quite clever. Once they get used to the noise and sound, they aren’t afraid to raid the farms anymore. The technology has to be constantly updated with new noises and effects to throw them off their game.
</p> <h5>So, what’s the solution?</h5>  <p>There’s no simple solution, unfortunately. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), governments and local communities can work together on research, planning, and prevention techniques that will help humans and animals coexist more easily.
Right now, the technological options are expensive because they’re new. The more common and mainstream they become; the more farmers will be able to afford them.
A healthy planet needs both wildlife and humans. We don’t have all the answers about resolving the human-wildlife conflict just yet, but loads of smart scientists and engineers are trying to figure it out.</p>

Traps, electric fences, guns or something a little more kind? Let’s see how technology is helping farmers keep wild animals away.

How Farmers Are Using Technology To Drive Away Wild Animals

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