For our project in the context of our minor International Entrepreneurship & Development we will be going to Bardiya National Park, in the southwest of Nepal. In the buffer zone around the National Park many farmers settled on the fertile grounds. As these grounds and farms attract elephants, the elephants rage the villages and farms in search of food.
An elephant is a very intelligent and strong animal, that is hard to stop once it smells food. The farmers in Nepal have not been able to keep the elephants at a safe distance, which have led to a lot of damage to the fields and villages.
When an elephant enters a village in search of food, nothing stops them. The destroy fields and houses to get to the food. The damage that is done by these actions is estimated at up to 80.000 euro’s a year.
To solve these problems we will redesign the current fences around the villages and farms, an area with an outline of 35km. The Himalayan Tiger Foundation has been dealing with these problems for some years now and asked the TU Delft and us to help them. In the meantime a lot of money is wasted to electric fences, without success. A test site is set up in the middle of the National Park to test the different designs. The request to us is to further research the possibilities of materials and design, and test the new design at the test site. In this way the local people will not waste any more money in huge investments in fences that do not work. As a result they will have the opportunity to invest in their own houses, children and future.
