Trench turns money pit; farmers remain unsafe

Digging almost complete even as structure caves in at several points

LITTLE PROTECTION: The trench dug by the Forest Department to protect farmers from wild animal attacks at Chembanode in Kozhikode.

A trench dug by the Forest Department at a huge cost to protect farmers from wild animal attacks at Chembanode in Kozhikode has caved in at several points.

The digging of the one-and-a-half-kilometre trench along the forest line is near complete, but it will be of no use without the construction of a retaining wall, say farmers.

‘Warnings ignored’

Locals say Forest Department officials paid no heed to their suggestions on digging the trench or warnings about poor soil texture. They say the trench constructed across the sandy surface is likely to vanish after the monsoon.

Bose Vattamattom, the leader of a rural farmers’ collective in the area, says the Forest Department has so far invested around ₹18 lakh in the project. The trench will not last long without a retaining wall, but it will not be feasible now for the Forest Department to compensate for the loss, he adds.

Mr. Vattamattom says wild elephants can easily flatten the edges of the trench and make their way to the farms. Solar fencing works earlier undertaken by the Department also met with the same plight on several stretches, he adds.

Instead of the trench, local farmers had urged the Forest Department to put up strong steel fences using dismantled railway tracks. They had pointed out that similar fences were used in other States to tackle the issue.

“The main issue here is the lack of proper planning and vision on the part of the Forest Department,” says K. George, president of ‘We Farm’, a new forum of farmers in Kozhikode rural area. He says government programmes to control wild animal encroachment will be successful only after consultation with affected farmers.

Forest Department sources say the trench was constructed on the basis of complaints raised by farmers in the area.

The damaged portions will be inspected and appropriate measures will be taken soon, they add.