After repeated requests from various Nature enthusiasts and the Forest Department to the Somaiyampalayam panchayat to stop dumping of waste at the Maruthamalai foothills, the local body started taking measures to prevent wild animals from entering the dumping site. It has dug a trench around the dumping site, which is situated close to the forest boundary, to stop animals from entering the plot and rummaging through the garbage.
The waste, which is dumped without segregation, lures wild animals such as elephants, wild boar, and deer.
The trench was created after the Forest Department, Nature enthusiasts, and members of non-governmental organisations demanded the panchayat to stop dumping waste at the location as Maruthamalai foothills is one of the important transit paths of wild elephants. They reiterated their demand after wild elephants and spotted deer were found feeding on food waste from the dumping site and materials such as masks, sanitary pads, and plastic bags were found in the dung piles of wild elephants.
Though the Forest Department had written to the panchayat last year to find another land, which is at least one km away from the forest boundary, the local body could not find an alternative site. The Department later wrote to the panchayat to erect a compound wall around the dumping site.
P. Rangaraj, president of the panchayat, said a trench of eight feet depth and width has been dug at about ₹7 lakh. “In addition to the trench, the panchayat will install solar fencing around the dumping area at ₹10 lakh. Vehicles carrying waste will be allowed to the place through a gate with solar fencing. We hope the measure will prevent animals from entering the site,” he said.
A Forest Department official said that further monitoring was required to see the result of the trench and solar fencing. The officials also wanted the local body to adopt better methods to process the waste than dumping at the site.
Welcoming the move by the panchayat, P. Shanmugasundaram, secretary of the Coimbatore Wildlife Conservation Trust that is mainly working in the Maruthamalai region, said that animals entering the dumping site reduced after the trench was formed.
