Nilgai Detection & Prevention Systems
By: Raj, Saswat, Ankita, Namrata, Nikita, Sulekha, Vrushali
May 2018
Introduction-
The Nilgai or Blue Bull is the largest Asian Antelope endemic to the Indian subcontinent.
Weight (Male) – 109-288kg
Weight (Female) – 100-213kg
Height (Male) – 4-6 feet
Height (Female) – 3.5 feet
Herd size- 8-15
Horn size- 15-24 cm
Body Temperature- 41 Degree Celsius
Life Span – 10 years
Jump Height- maximum 7 feet
Colour- Male- Bluish Grey Female- orange
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Farmers face a major problem of crop vandalism due to Nilgai and Wild Boars . The crop damage leads to huge losses to the farmer. Farmers tried to use fences and shocking machines to prevent these wild animals, which costed them 3-8 thousand rupees. Moreover these wild animal broke or jumped over these fences. Other preventive measures included spraying cow dung , egg solution etc but they were unable to get the necessary results. After various field visits and information collection , a two part system was formed (i) Detection (ii) Prevention.
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Problem Statement:
Prevention of Crop Vandalism due to Nilgai.
List of questions team prepared before visiting the fields:
1) Which crops you grow?
2) Which animals come in farm?
3) Which techniques you used to prevent farm?
4) Damage of crops?
5) If any device comes in market will it be helpful to you or not?
6) Do they coming in rainy season? If they come what will be your action?
7) Nilgai comes in group or alone?
8) What is size of farm?
9) When /How Nilgai comes in the farm?
FIELD VISITS
The team was split into two groups. One group went to Aluva village and other went to Amrapur.
Aluva Farm Visit
At Aluva, the team met farmers and questioned them about the problem of Nilgais in their farm.
It is made up of aluminum material and thorns are also of aluminum.
6) Is this method useful for crops protection? It is not used for crop protection as nilgai breaks the aluminum wire and come inside the farm.
7) What do you do when such a situation occurs? The farmer told us that they keep joining the wire whenever the nilgai breaks it and they do this regularly.
8) How much cost do you require for fencing? It depends on farm size and government gives 90% subsidy and 10% we have to pay.
9) If any electronic device comes to market it will be helpful for you or not? (we have shown the video of an electronic device to the farmer) Yes, we will buy the product whatever cost it may be.
10) How the nilgai comes in the farm? Single or group?
Nilgai comes in the group in which one is male which is head and others are females. The farmer had taken the team to river Sabarmati where they saw the herd of Nilgai drinking water.
• Amrapur field visit
Interview session with farmer at Amrapur:
Name of farmer: Surendra Sedhaji Rathod(Amrapur)
1) Which crops do you grow in your farm? Bajara, jowar, wheat and rice
2) Which are the animals that destroy the crops? Bund and monkeys
3) Which methods do you use for the protection of crops? Sprays cow dung solution or lion’s waste around the farm, fencing, electrical fencing and scarecrows.
4) How much you spent for normal fencing? 2-3 thousand rupees for normal fencing and 8 thousand for electrical fencing.
5) What are the problems with fencing? Nilgais can break and can jump off from those fences as they can jump from 7 feet height.
6) How the nilgai comes in the farm? Single or group? Nilgai comes in group of 12-15.
7) When do they come in farms? At night, after 4-5 days farm. They come from “kotar".
Comment:- They said that whichever device you make it should be easily operated
Name of farmer:
Pravin Singh
1) How the nilgai comes in the farm? Single or group? Maximum 8 nilgai comes in group.
2) How many times nilgai comes in a week? 3 or 4 times comes in one week and sometimes comes regularly.
3) Which crops do you grow in your farm? Bajara, jowar, wheat and rice.
4) How the nilgai comes in the farm? Single or group? Nilgai comes in group in which one is male which is head and others are females.
5) How much the cost of fences? Simple fences which is made up of Aluminium and cost of these fences is 1500 rupees and the cost of electrical fences minimum 8000 rupees and these fences are used only in few farmers.
6) If the nilgai comes in rainy season? They said No, minimum no of nilgai comes.
7) What losses do you get when nilgai enters your farm? 15 - 25% crops get damage.
Comment: They said market has liquid solution which is used for wild boar prevention just like that if any solution comes for nilgai prevention it will be helpful for us.
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Story of Pravin Bhai:
This story is of Pravin bhai of Amrapur district who is fed up of nilgais and suffers a whooping loss of 25% every year. He complains of having sleepless nights guarding his farm from the menace of nilgais. Crop waste adds oil to the fire. Also damage to farm fields is another burden for him. Pravin bhai has also tried a lot of trivial methods but turns out to be a waste. Pravin said “Humne bahut nusqa apnaye par gandi nilgai ne sab bagadi nakhyu”. He said that sprinkling cow dung solution on his crops helped keep nilgais away for a day only. Also he mentioned that solution on a daily basis after a weary day is a hassle. He also lost a lot of money in pursuit of nilgai. Pravin bhai enlightened us about a new technology and we were quite interested. It was the electric fence. It worked well for some days but did not do well for a long run as he complained nilgais broke the fence and got into the field. The dreaded story signifies his loss and trauma but still he smiles like a baby and cooperated withteam while they went for a field visit with utmost kindness and pleasure.
(ii) Krishi Bhavan & Aranya Bhavan Visit
The team reached Gandhinagar at 11:30 am. They visited Krishhi Bhavan where Dr S.S. Patel referred them to Aranya Bhavan secretary as Nilgai issue was not addressed in Animal Husbandry and Agriculture Department. Team members went to the Aranya Vibhag. Team met Prafulla Chandpura assistant chief conservative officer. Team conversed with him over various topics especially nilgai. He gave them useful advice about nilgai.
Aranya Bhavan
Address: Near Central Water Commission, Near CH-3 Circle, CH Rd, Sector 10A, Sector 10, Gandhinagar, Gujarat 382010
After multiple field visits to farms they got a clear picture about how nilgais are harmful for the farms and reading previous year’s project papers they collected information. We observed that most farmers have to wake up at night and drive off Nilgai by running behind them through the vast farms with flash light. This problem is so big that they are ready to invest on any solution if developed to prevent Nilgai. Information we got from different farmers were different through which we observed that farms near Kotar or Jungle are mostly facing problems due to Nilgai. Farms away from their habitat are not facing much problem.
Observation done near Sabarmati riverside was that Nilgais take note of areas carefully if there is any safety or not. They wait until they feel safe to go. This concludes that they are clever enough to get used to any system if made to prevent them. They came in herds of 12-13 of which 2 were babies, one was leading male and remaining were females. Females always keep following the male one. Farmers near Sabarmati Kotar (River Besin) have more problems of Nilgai and Pigs whereas distant farms have more problems of Monkey and Wandering Cows. Fences were corroded. Life span for normal fencing is 2 years. After lot of research the team thought of a detection and prevention system, a system using PIR sensors for detection of Nilgai and RF modules for transmitting data from one point to other for preventive actions.
DESIGN CONCEPTS Detection is done using PIR sensor at one point, which detects the change in Infrared waves which are emitted by movement of hot-blooded animals or human. PIRs will sense movement of Nilgai and give signal to the Arduino Nano. This data will be used to trigger the Preventive actions at other point. This data is sent via RF communication. Preventive actions include flashing of lights and Siren (Hooter) after the data is received. The team also thought of adding other preventive actions at the receiver side like sprinkler and scary mask for scarecrows.
List of Materials Required:
PROTOTYPE 1
• PIR sensors to detect Nilgai.
• Arduino Nano used as a controller.
• RF modules used to send data from one point to other.
Field Test
PROTOTYPE 2
Prototype 1 had only detection features, after that team added different Nilgai prevention modules in existing prototype to make it a complete detection and prevention system. As one module detects Nilgai two things happens:
1) It sends data to other modules to trigger their prevention system.
2) It triggers its own prevention module mounted on same system.
Saswat giving final shape of prototype case
System placed in case on top of 5 feet high rod.
Schema for placing device in field
Limitations
• Cost can be major problem for Big Landlords as many numbers of detector unit required covering large perimeter of farm.
• Recharge multiple unit many times can be time consuming so solar charging system can be implemented.
• Range of speaker is very limited in open environment so large power speaker required.
• Need to reduce false triggering of PIR sensor. Also it will not work in harsh environmental condition.
• We need multiple prevention modules with different technique to prevent Nilgai adoption with any prevention technique.
Determining practical range of Two PIR Sensor system, gives range of half circle of 14 meter diameter.
Preventing Crop Vandalism due to Wild Animals
By: Anmol, Arpit, Satish, Harsh
May 2017
Problem Statement
The problem of crop damage due to trespassing wild animals in farm lands is not a recent one. We focused on the animals that have been the major concern for the farmers here in Gujarat - namely Nilgai and Bund. The prime cause can be attributed to the loss of natural habitat. The jungle has been to reduced to the minimal due to human encroachment and degrading state of forest has no food to offer to the wild animals. The animals have found an alternative food source in crops from near by farm lands from their habitat. However the farmers complain that the wild animals eats less and destroys more due to its movement in the farm. Also they mostly attack during the night time when there is no human presence. Farmers reported that the animals destroy 30% of their produce on average.
Next we looked at the methods prevalent to prevent animal attacks. These can be categorised into two groups: manual and mechanical. The manual solutions require physical surveillance in the fields all night - farmer sits at a watch-point and either flashes a torch or fires crackers on detecting the presence of Nilgai or Bund. Some temporary solutions that they have tried are: tying a sari around their farmland repels Bund and spraying predator’s excreta around the crops repels Nilgai. But they do not last long and the animals adapt after some time. The mechanical solutions include fencing and a shock machine. However fencing is extremely costly and very few farmers can actually afford it. Also animals get adapted to the shock machine after few times.
Problem Statement:
Crop Damage Faced by Farmers due to Attack of Nilgai and Wild Boar
Initially, the problem statement given to us was: Community warning for nilgai, wild boar and monkeys in farms. But when we really went to the farms and talked to the farmers, we felt that there was really no need for “community warning”, but some kind of device using which farmers can ensure that wild animals come to farm less often and they themselves can go and sleep at night.
Mind Map
Field Visits
Amrapur
For our first field visit we decided to visit the nearest farming village Amrapur, 2 km from our place of stay. We left at 10 am in the morning and reached there in 5 minutes. We found the household of the first farmer there and discussed the aspects of crop vandalism with him. Next we were informed that a nearby villager is deeply affected by Nilgai (Blue Bulls) and would like to talk to us. We were more than happy to discuss the problem with him as well.
Interview 1
Name: Praveen Singh Village: Amrapur
TM: Team Member PS: Praveen Singh
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TM: What crops do you grow in your land?
PS: In my distributed 12 highs land - I grow wheat, jowar, bajra, dongar(paddy), kapas(cotton) and arandi(castor).
TM: What do you think can increase the crop yield?
PS: The major loss to farmer here is due to the attack by wild animals in our farms. The loss is merely not due to eating, due to their movement through the field, most crop gets trampled. On average 30% of our production is lost due to animal activities. TM: Where do these animals come from?
PS: Nilgai and wild boar are primary responsible for our losses. Both these animals stay in Kottar during the day and become active in the night. Kottar is the riverbed for river Sabarmati and during the winter season it does have water - the attack is lesser during those months. During summer the river is dry - they come out more often to seek food and water.
TM: Can you give us some more information about nilgai?
PS: They generally rest in the grassland during the day and around 8 in the evening they can be sighted in some of the farms. they come in herds of size upto 15 and both male and female are present. Their total population would be around 150-200 in the wild.
TM: How does it effect you?
PS: After eating in one field they move to the adjoining field and sometimes if they are chased away they run swiftly and destroy our crops in the process.They do not have a fixed entry point in the field - they can enter from any side - thus surveillance is required on all directions. Apart from eating, due to their movement the plants which are in their primary stage gets effected. If their shoot is broken - it will not grow to its full height and hence the productivity is reduced. The returns are not proportional to our hard work.
TM: What about bund(wild boar)?
PS: They rest in the mud area around the tall during the day and come to field during the night. Wild boar can even chase away pet dogs. It is more difficult to tame bund, 3 people are required to completely chase them away - they defend by changing direction and rolling over. They start eating from one end and can destroy the whole produce till the end of the farm.
TM: Does it also attack stored food?
PS: Yes. Once it carried away a 60 kg sack of wheat. It became completely useless as our own cattle would not eat it after smelling the bund.
TM: Does government provide any compensation?
PS: Not at all. We had gone to the Gandhinagar Sachivalya to file a complaint. Despite submitting the images of the destroyed land we never got any response. Government officials do come to inquire about the amount of produce but not about the amount of destruction.
TM: How are you defending against these animals?
PS: None at all. Though we have tried using some methods in the past - We have tried smell and sound based methods but to no effect. We had tied two glass bottles to detect their entry - but nilgai jumps over it and bund comes from beneath. Nilgai can jump over as high as 4 feet. Trenches are also of no use. Finally they have to manually chased away by rods or crackers. Medicines with smell were also tried but it adapts very quickly so they have minimal effect. Sound based system have the disadvantage that wild boar attacks the source of the sound.
TM: What do you think can act as an effective solution?
PS: Fencing of 6 feet height seems to the only possible method to prevent them fro entering. But it very costly. Farmers of near by field must come together to put a bigger fence to make it affordable but all farmers do not come to a agreement due to monetary issues.
TM: Do you think an automatic alarm system can work for you?
PS: Yes it might work. But it must try to constant the animals in the Kottar itself. Otherwise they will destroy one farm or the other.
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Comment:
Praveen Singh informed us that he is not getting the desired rates for the crops grown to make a handsome profit. He needs money during March end for sowing crops for the next financial year. Thus he takes loans and these loans keeps increasing over the year. If productivity of their fields is increased he can meet his financial demands. One way seems to be protection against attacks of wild animals which are responsible for 30% production loss. Next we proceed to the villager who was seeking to talk to us. His farm was located on the boundary of river basin. It was was large with multiple crops being grown. He initially assumed we are government officials. He was adamant on fence being put around his field. He wanted more subsidy from the govt.(90%) and the process to become easier in terms of paperwork. As his field was very near to the basin recent damage was observed on his field. He showed around his field to us.
Interview 2
Name: Jeetendra Rathore Village: Amprapur
TM: Team Member JR: Jeetendra Rathore
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TM: Can you name the crops currently grown?
JR: Currently we grow jowar and dongar.
TM: Can you tell the extent of damage done to your farm?
JR: My farm is the nearest to the Kottar so maximum damage is done on my fields. It acts as the entry point for the wild animals. You can fathom the extent of the damage from the fact that I put nuts in my filed to optimally produce 50 maan of output however due to the vandalism I am only producing 5 maan. I can survive only due the dairy that I have.
TM: What are the preventive measures that you are currently using?
JR: Currently I have grown a patch of cactus shrubs along the border. It is keeping the boar away mostly but the nilgai can jump over it. I have to constantly watch over the field from my home and on any indication of resence of nilgai, i flash torch light from my roof. It is enough to scare them away, but they come back after a span of 2 hours.
TM: So can we automate this process?
JR: Minimum human intervention should be there so we do not need to come down to the farm. The automated system would work if could chase away back to the Kottar and it should be robust that it does not come back after some time.
Mubarakpur
In the afternoon we set off to Mubarakpur, a village 4 km from Grambharti. Mubarakpur village was not near kottar area and surrounded by other villages. The lands of most farmers was near the highway. Population is around 2500 and there is no govt. medical dispensary in the village. Sarpanch is very young, 25 years of age. Villagers have unanimously elected the Sarpanch here. Earlier the Sarpanch was corrupt and only worked to fill his pocket. Villagers want to see real changes in their living and working standards.
Interview 3
Name: Hasmukh Bhai Village: Mubarakpur
TM: Team Member HB: Hansmukh Bha
TM: What animals are causing most problems to your farming activities?
HM: We are growing jowar on our farms currently. Most problematic animal is bund(wild boar). Nilgai comes to their farms very seldom because the village is situated quite far from Kottar(river basin). The villagers who have their field situated near the Kottar is troubled by it.
TM: What are the entry points for wild boar?
HM: nearby there is an ONGC setup due to which oily mud is present in the area. Bund, after getting soiled in that oily mud, comes to our farms and makes the crops very dirty. It can dig upto 3-4 feet deep holes in the mud.
TM: What are the solutions you are currently deploying?
HM: We currently use a chemical called phorate mixed with wheat. It is a cheap chemical which costs Rs 40 to 50 per kg. We mix it with wheat flour and keep it near the crops. This creates a sort of honeytrap, and bund very easily eats it. 2-3 hours after eating it, bund gets poisoned and dies.
Interview 4
Name: Chetan Bhai Village: Mubarakpur
TM: Team Member CB: Chetah Bhai
TM: What crops are you currently growing?
HM: kapas(cotton), which germinates in 3-4 days after sowing and takes 1 month for full growth. We also grow jowar, brinjal, cauliflower. We used to grow green chilli 2-3 years back but due to some airborne disease, it started getting spoiled in whole of this area.
TM: Can you tell us the process of cotton plantation?
CB: We use tractors for ploughing and flood irrigation. We use standard 4 feet distance in between crops. Seed is sown with bare hands and is 1 angal (around 2 cm) deep.
TM: What are you using currently to kill pests?
CB: We use Oberon(Rs. 400) and insecticide Rimjhim(Rs 380). It is quite effective and there is no problem as such.
TM: What animals do attack your crops?
CB: The village is very far from the Kottar so Attack from Nilgai is not too frequent but sometimes they do attack and huge losses are incurred. Attack to crop from wild boar is very often and they generally eat crop like cotton (cotton carry), timber, trunk, and roots of grasses which generally germinate in the porous and fertile soil with the crop. Wild boar has good sense organ and in the search of food, they can dig up to 3-4 feet deep in the soil. Their body odour is very unpleasant so when their body makes contact with field crop the crop becomes very stinky and domestic animal (cow and buffalo) don’t eat that crop. TM: How do you prevent these attacks?
CB: I use a mixture of pesticide (forex) and wheat flour and spread it over the crop. When bund eats this they die after some time. In order to prevent herd attack, this method doesn’t seem very effective.
Little experiment by Satish Gaurav, our team member.
There was papaya plantation in adjacent field, which was contact based and grown by one of his family member. They were small plants and about 1 year old. It was observed that some plants were not bearing fruits. Satish had some knowledge and a solution about this problem that if a small wooden stick is hammered through the stem at its base, then within 10-15 days, plant starts to bear fruits!
Comment:
Most of the farmers don't seem comfortable when we ask about their income from farming but Chetan Bhai was very charming and comfortable. He said that he makes good money and is happy with his farming. He generally grows two (sometimes three) crops in a year i.e. (cotton in the summer, wheat in the winter, jowar and bajara in b/w the winter and the summer). They don’t do farming of pulses because of monkey attacks.
Arjunpur
After concluding our visit at Mubarakpur we decided to visit Arjunpur. Mentors from SRISTI provided a point of contact in the village.
We talked to him over phone to inquire if we can visit his village. When we reached his home, he was milking his cows. He showed us what fodder he fed to his cows. They were special fodder that induced more fat in the milk. After getting to know us, he took us to his farm. His farm was located very near to the highway, behind bungalows. On the way he told us that he owned 15 bigha land, and it appeared that he was well-off. He was growing beans(chauli) and gourd(lauki). We tasted the raw beans and it was quite tasty. Later he informed us that pesticide had not been sprayed till then.
Interview 5
Name: Mukeshbhai Gandabhai Patel Village: Mubarakpur
TM: Team Member MGB: Mukeshbhai Gandabhai Patel
TM: Which animals are causing harm to your farming activities?
MGB: Nilgai is less of a concern as farm is located far from the river basin. But monkeys & wild boar are creating havoc in the field if field if its left unwatched for a day. Today monkeys attacked the field in the noon as I had to go somewhere & no one was on the watch.
TM: What kind of destruction is being caused?
MGB: Monkey eats while sitting on the field, it weighs around 7-8kg. Therefore it damages the field too much. Monkey tastes the vegetable & leaves it around. Nilgai is not causing unnecessary destruction, it just eats & leaves the field.
TM: How’s the market for fruits & vegetables?
MGB: Atleast 30% is destroyed by the vermin & also market is not good enough for them. Kapas is more popularly grown in the area due to its great demand & less handling efforts. Kapas is less attacked therefore it is profitable. Vegetables are left little raw as market demand is not good.
TM: Can you comment about Panchayat & govt.?
MGB: Govt. is not helping or providing subsidies for the damage. During floods when damage was around 80% of produce only Rs.2000 was offered as subsidy. Our sarpanch is 55 years old and vermin attacks are not much of a concern for Panchayat. We wish we have a young sarpanch in future.
TM: Have you adopted any measures?
MGB: If fire is kept burning near the farm for 2 hours it prevents vermin to enter the field. But bund & Nilgai adapts in sometime. Monkeys do not attack in the night. I am planning to put fence around the field once I manage the funds. I have not sprayed the field as there is no disease for now & its costly.
Comment:
Damage in the field also depends on the penetration of the vermin. If the field is far away Nilgai does not damage much, but bund still enters the field. Fire cannot be solution as it causes pollution & there is a risk of farm fire. So a singular solution for every field is not viable & even not desirable.
Visit to Kottar, Delvad and NIF Farm
KOTTAR (area of Sabarmati river which has been swept off by water, which consists of riverbed)
In all our field visits on 29 may, we were told by farmers and locals that wild animals like nilgai(blue bull) and bund(wild boar) came to their farms after sunset, ate their crops in darkness when they could not be seen, and then before sunrise receded to the area called kottar. The animals rested there in the daytime. We were anxious and excited to see and know the reason why animals came from there. Was food and water not available there? Were they doing it just to trouble the farmers? that couldn’t be! So our group decided to embark for this journey. We left grambharti at 10’ o clock in the morning, but before leaving, a local gave us an advice that we should go to Amarnath dham, a temple on top of a mountain which would give us a bird’s eye view of the area. So we reached the temple but unfortunately from there we could not have a proper view of Kottar. Then we decided to go there by ourselves using google maps because there was no actual road leading there. In the way we encountered this:
All the body parts were scattered here & there. It looked like a week old. So naturally, we were scared to death! But anyway, we decided to continue. From the horns we identified it as a male nilgai. Soon were were inside an area which looked like:
​It was quite a challenging task to make our way through the forest. We can very well see that nearly all the bushes and trees are thorny and not edible for eating.
On our way back, we clicked another photo from top of a mountain. We would again like to emphasise that there was no edible food for herbivore animals in this area, where wild animals live most of the time.This is definitely a reason that they come to farmlands for fresh and healthy food.
Also we saw human tracks in the forest, there was too much intervention. There was sand mining going on, and loud noise of tractors and trucks could be heard from a long distance. Approximately 920 bigha is the forest cover. We finally reached near the river bed, and clearly we can see that as the sand is very fine there are no plants there too and no water most times of the year.
According to Dr. Madan, 30 years back, the jungle in this area was dense and lush green, so the animals had a nice habitat in which they could sustain themselves.
We also encountered concentrated dung at various spots in the jungle. Dr. Madan told us that a specialty of Nilgai is that they excrete at same spots everytime.
This enables hunters to wait for Nilgai at these spots and kill them. He told us that even if they get separated from their herd, they get reunited easily after sometime. Their herd size can range from 10 to 40 in number. Most of Nilgai’s water requirement can be fulfilled from eating crops itself.
According to doctor, no one has ever tried to domesticate nilgai. Nilgai falls in category of Ruminants; it has gap in its hoof. On a concluding note, due to farm expansion and deforestation, habitat loss has occurred over the years and thus animals have increased the frequency of interfering with human activities.
We were shocked to know that IUCN(International Union for Conservation of Nature) has declared Nilgai as the “least concerned” animal presently.
Delvad
During our earlier visit to villages, while interviewing people about human-wild animal encounter - one story was pretty famous. Though nobody remembered the name of the victim, we were told that a farmer in Delvad village was attacked by a wild boar while he was trying to chase away the boar from his crop fields. the wild boar had apparently attacked the left foot of the farmer and that left him heavily injured. They did not know the extent of the damage but estimated that the encounter must have crippled the farmer. We set out to find this farmer and know the true account of events from himself. Given the popularity of the tale, the team assumed it should not be difficult to locate the farmer.
Our team arrived at the bus stand of the village Delvad around 5.30 pm and found that a couple of people were relaxing at a compound there. We introduced ourselves and began chatting about the state of events in the village. We informed them that we were gathering information about the tragedies of the farmers regarding wild animals. On inquiring about the injured farmer, they have never heard about such an incident and also assured us that had such an incidence ever occurred in their village they would have known about it. Undeterred by this we thought that the Village Sarpanch would know about it. To our disappoint the Village Sarpanch also had no clue about it. He guessed that the story could be possibly from another village Delvada (a good 40 km from there). We asked him about the damage due to animal vandalism in their village. Their village was also plagued by the attacks by blue bulls(nilgai), wild boar(bund), monkeys and porcupine(saahee). He introduced us to Bharat Bhai whose farmland was nearest to the river basin (Kottar) - area where nilgai and other animals stayed during the day and came back during night to the farms. Bharat Bhai took us to his farm and we chatted with him for more than 2 hours. Some key insights are presented here.
Interview 6
Name : Bharat Bhai Village: Delvad
Team Member (TM) Bharat Bhai (BB)
TM: Are animals selective while damaging the crops?
BB: Not at all, every crop is equally effected. They need food to eat and they find that in our farms. In a year we grow chauli, kakdi, baigan, bhindi, jowar and gehoon, but wild animals will come and eat each crop.
TM: Is there some animal specific attacking frequency and style that you know of?
BB: The farm is mainly effects by four animals: nilgai, bund, saahee and bandar. Nilgai stays in the Kottar during the day and comes to eat during the night, around 8, and continue eating around till 5 in the morning. It is mainly interested in eating fruits and vegetables and some times eats grass or leaves. they come in a herd size of 15-20. They will start eating from one farm and then move to the next one. They can go all the way upto the highway and return to the Kottar in the morning.
Bund also has a similar pattern for approaching the fields - they come to the fields in the night and then return in the morning and always in large herd size with their babies(5-6) accompanying them. However it creates more havoc, since it likes to eat all plant parts - leaves, fruits, stem and root. When the field is dry it is difficult for them to dig, but when it is wet - they dig for roots and stem. Bund also likes to eat earthworm from the soil - earthworm is required for the soil to remain fertile, so it digs the soil. Thus the tragedy is manifold. Saahee has spines all over his body, 12-15 cm in length. Not only do they eat the crops but due to their movement they also cut the plant stems - destroying the crop completely. They visit the filed around midnight.
Bandar comes to the field during the day and they eat fruits and vegetables. They are not very frequent in their visits so the damage due to them is minimal.
TM: So what are measures do you use to protect your crops?
BB: Presently we only do human surveillance. I have a watch point at the end of the farm and I stay here during the night - on noticing any activity I flash a torch light from here.There is a light cactus shrubs at the border of my farms - yet they make it either by jumping over them or they find some entry point where the vegetation is minimal. Nilgai is scared away by the light flashing and I do not have to step down from the watch point. Similarly saahee also gets scared very easily. However for bund I do get down to chase them away. But this is not a permanent solution as they always come back in an hour or two and if I doze off anytime - they easily enter the field.
TM: Are their any other methods they you used but they failed?
BB: For bund we came to know that there is a medicine named Phorate - that can kill them after some time on consuming it. But it smelled badly so the bund started avoiding them. Then we tried mixing it with wheat mixture but that was not helpful either. So we finally used rat killer - bund was eating this, but it only make it sleep for sometime and they would eventually come back after a day.
TM: What do you think can act as a permanent solution to this menace?
BB: Fencing seems to be the permanent solution, however it will be a very costly one. The entire field will need a expenditure of Rs 1 lakh and even on using the 50% subsidy provided by government - it will more than enough to bear. A fencing with 3-tier barbed wire will work and it should also contain a wire mesh patch in the bottom to protect it against smaller animals like bund and saahee. An electrified fence would be even better for giving “jhatka”.
TM: How difficult is it to avail the subsidy?
BB: Though government forms are floated regularly it requires a lot of paper work. Also the officials do not readily agree for smaller fields. They insist to ask for subsidy for fields with area greater than 100 bigha. This need farmers with surrounding farm lands to cooperate, however farmers do not come to a conclusion egarding money matters.
TM: What about cheap solutions?
BB: Is there one? We introduced some of the cheap solutions that we came across during prior-art search to Bharat Bhai. In the first method, you have to dilute 100 ml rotten egg content in 10 litre of water and sprinkle it over your crops. The herbivorous animals will be repelled by the pungent smell and egg being organic will be a good manure for the farm. Given the present method that he used to prevent crop damage we discussed possibility of an automatic alarm/lightening system which would detect the entry of wild animal in the field and fire an alarm or lighting. Bharat Bhai responded positively and also suggested ways to prevent animals becoming adapted to the auto-mates system. The alarm or lighting system should have a random element to mimic human presence to chase away animals. In conclusion Bharat Bhai also pointed that a mere repellent system would not be enough to solve this problem. The wild animals would need some food source to sustain and we must also think about some possible food to these animals in the forest or the Kottar itself.
We had recorded the recent damage that was done last night. Nilgai and wild boar had visited the field and we found their hoof prints all over field. There were digging marks and eaten plant shoots. Bharat Bhai also told that a day before his entire chauli plantation was destroyed - he had to resow the seeds. Also a lot of damage was noticed due to trampling by the wild animals - the jowar plantation was not eaten by either the bund or nilgai but they were run down by the animals.
NIF Farm
On the suggestion of various people inside NIF, and some villagers, we decided to go to NIF farm in the night. We were told that many nilgai’s visit the farm at night and some remain there itself! Excited by this information, after making necessary preparation, we left the campus at 10 pm. The road had no light, and there was absolute darkness so it was a bit scary and thrilling at the same time. We reached there in 15 minutes by walking. We stayed there for about 2 hours. Sometimes dogs barked, so we thought a wild animal is approaching. It is also a human tendency that when we can’t see or hear something, we think we hear what we want to hear. So all our attempts to see wild animals were unsuccessful.
Unsuccessful, sad and frustrated, we decided to head back. We observed that the road was fenced on both sides with height of at least 6 feet, which indicates how serious the problem is in this area. Then the lucky encounter finally occurred. We say two Nilgais’ sitting peacefully and probably chewing. On seeing torchlight, they stood up and started to walk away from the light. From their activities, it appeared that they were not sure that there were humans nearby. At the same time, we heard sound of firecrackers in the distance, which shows that there were more animals in nearby farms. Firecrackers are traditionally used to scare away animals. We noticed that there were many entry points in fencing, and many pillar were broken. This shows that how animals might enter a farmland, but later on could not find exit points.
There was a good probability that these two female nilgais were the ones we encountered in the morning while returning from Kottar area, because they too were sighted running in the nearby areas.
Design Concepts
From field insights we started our journey towards design. We focussed on sensory perceptions of Nilgai & wild boar, around that we started building our concept. Physical structure & thermal signature were also kept in mind. Firstly we designed a sound response electronic circuit using PIR sensor, buzzer would go off whenever thermal variations were detected within the range of 20-25 ft. We were still not sure, how would we integrate this into a mechanical design. Ted Moalem(mentor from MIT) told us to mimic human actions as it had some randomness. We also did some prior art search along these lines & found that most concepts failed if there is no randomness. Prof. Amit Sheth(HOD, Design Dept., Nirma Univ) resolved our problem by giving us the vague idea of designing an electronic scarecrow. We found the idea interesting & viable. We started working in this direction & added predator sound as response instead of buzzer. Then on consequent field visit we found that flashing LED light could scare away the animals, & again randomness is necessary. So we designed a secondary circuit involving 4 LEDs placed in the 4 directions which flashed in a sequence.
Prototype
We were a bit late on finishing our integrated prototype that could finally be tested on field. That’s why we could only test it once. We went to test it on the field of Bharat bhai in delwad village, and he took interest on seeing this device. He gave us feedback that:
•The sound of the speaker should be increased
•He was concerned about the battery life •Range of the flashlight was fine
•Sensor was constantly buzzing
•Concerned whether it would work in rain or not We would try to incorporate these features into the prototype.
Limitations
• No integrated (single) power source
• Prototype is currently not robust
• System will not work in extreme conditions
• There is no randomisation in lighting and sound pattern currently. So, there is a risk of wild animals getting adapted to this system
• Low PIR sensor range
• Sound is low as of now. There is a need to put operational amplifier in the circuit
• PIR sensors, while rotating give false alarm
• There is too much load on motor shaft, because whole of the above parts’ weight is coming on it. As a result of this, the rod tilts sometimes while rotating. There is a need to distribute weight.
• Maintenance issues might be there
• Only works at nighttime. If you want to deploy it in daytime, only sound-PIR system will be effective.
As we had limited time, we could not counter these issues, but almost all of these issues can be taken care of easily by putting in some time and effort.
Road Ahead
All of the limitations listed can be taken care of. Also, by taking more user feedback and further iterations, product design and user experience can be vastly improved. We found that this problem is a real issue in many states in India, and needs to be addressed immediately. The population of Nilgai and bund is increasing vastly. If this continues, then no matter how complex a technological solution someone develops, it might not be a solution for long time. We also know that our solution is not a permanent one, so there is a need for higher bodies like state and central governments to search hard for sustainable solutions. Some of the members of our team would like to work further in our own colleges to make further improvements in design and technology. We are very eager to know if animals would adapt even to this system or not. We would like to reflect that we did not try chemical methods like spraying solution of rotten egg on crops, which were reportedly quite effective. We also rejected the idea of spraying predator excreta, or spraying urine of some nilgai/bund so that other animals get confused due to territory conflicts.
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Billing of Final Prototype
ITEM - Cost in Rs.
Low RPM motor - 260/-
Arduino uno - 480/-
Flashlights - 400/- (4 x 100)
PIR SENSORS - 260/- (2 X 130)
Speaker - 350/-
Electrical components - 300/-
Mechanical components - 200/-
Summary
We aimed to make a robust system which does not require human intervention but actually replicate the current methodology used by farmers to chase away the animals. Both the target animals are shy and are easily scared by merely flashing torch light on them. Our system has two stages: detection and scaring away the animal. For detection we have used passive infrared sensors (PIR) which is activated by presence of a heat radiations. Thus it can detect the presence of any hot-blooded animal. The current sensors provide a range of 25 feet. We have used two sensors which are placed opposite to each other and the sensor box is mounted at the height of 4 feet on a revolving rod to detect animal invasion from any direction. After the sensor is activated we have a light and sound system playing synchronously to scare away the animal. The light system comprises of four 12 Watt LED with reflectors to obtain a beam upto 30 feet. The light system is again mounted on the revolving rod at a height of 5 feet to cover the entire farm land. The LEDs are flashed using an electrical circuit and sequenced to mimic human action. The sound system comprises of a speaker which plays a recorded audio file containing roars of lions and tigers, fire cracker sounds and human shouting sound. The speaker is mounted at the top of the rod and the rotation creates a illusion of approaching source instead os a static one. The entire circuit is presently been driven by Arduino. The rod has been provided with clamp to adjust the height of sensors, LEDs and speaker. A DC motor is used to rotate the rod at 10 rpm and the entire system is being powered by two batteries of 9 Volt. Our current prototype has a couple of issues - adaptability and power source. In order to address adaptability issues, it would be sensible to frequently change the audio files, say monthly. A solar based system could answer the power shortcomings. In order to completely mimic human presence in the field during night we propose that moving scarecrows can be a solution. The classic scarecrow has been efficient in protecting the field from birds, but a static object will not scare intelligent animals like Nilgai.
Final Prototype
We wish to create a scarecrow which will move in a linear fashion on some predefined path using simple mechanical set-up. It will hang on a hook from a rope and a roller would be used to transverse it. Apart from audio and visual senses we could also attack the olfactory senses by spraying pungent chemicals which could repel the animals.