Raghavendra Bhat owns an organic farm that is surrounded by forests just outside Bengaluru in India, the country’s capital. Bhat was shocked to discover that he would be faced with mischievous visitors on his 15-acre (6 hectare) plot.
At first, he didn’t mind the intruders. Then things turned sour.
“At some time, we started seeing literally hundreds of people come to the banana plantation. Then they started slowly coming to our house and jumping on people,” Bhat said. “That was when we felt it was a threat now and we needed to do something.”
The farmer was under attack by monkeys. The attacks on his orchard grew in intensity and he began to recognize some of them individually.
“One of them has no tail and he is actually the leader.” He comes every year with a larger group,” said Bhat.
Raghavendra Bhath with his family and the harvest in India
Wildlife on the hunt for easy food
Farmers are used to pests. But with climate change and human encroachment on wildlife habitat shrinking food supplies, animals are increasingly raiding farms in search of a snack.
With farmers in India already seeing failed harvests in a time of erratic rainfall, most cannot afford to lose more of their crops to wild animals.
Bhat, who runs a large farm wonders how small farmers can deal with the double whammy caused by climate change and wildlife attacks. Nearly 90% of his recent harvest of pigeon peas was destroyed by unseasonal and excessive rains.
Bhat stated, “Imagine that the same thing happens to a small farmer who depends on income from this, because many would have taken loans and he will need to pay it despite crop losses.” Now imagine monkeys and other wild animals destroying the remaining 10%. He won’t be capable of even surviving the next year.
To protect their livelihoods, some are using firecrackers, electric fences and even poison on the animals raiding their land. But others, like Bhat, are looking to technology to offer a kinder solution to outwit intelligent visitors like monkeys and elephants.
Manual monkey capture and release
Bhat loses at least 20% of his revenue to invasions of monkeys and elephants looking for a meal. If he hadn’t taken the time to trap and cage monkeys five years ago, the losses could have been doubled. He would transport up to 25 monkeys on his tractor, and then free them in a forest about 100 km (62 miles) away.
Bhat said, “I don’t mind if they just go and eat.” “They will eat 10, sometimes none, from bananas to guava and mango to sapota.
In December 2021, a guest staying at Bhat’s farm experienced the monkey menace. He suggested a bioacoustic device to scare off monkeys that was being tested in northern India. The motion-sensing solar-powered equipment produced the roars of lions and tigers, leopards, or even gunshots to scare away animals.
He reached out to SR Ayan of Katidhan the wildlife tech company responsible for it. “How can you change the behavior and behavior of an animal without harming them?” asked Ayan. “It is by attacking it’s senses.”
A solar-powered monkey repeller attached on a tree at a farm
Ayan’s team tested a motion-detecting sprinkler to spray water on the swinging marauders before settling on the sound device. However, it didn’t work as intended. “When we first started out, the monkey felt a bit agitated thinking the water was coming at him. Ayan explained that the monkey began to play with it within a few days.
The team then turned their attention to sound. They programmed the speaker with a different sound every week to confuse the monkeys.
A costly outlay to keep animals out
The device costs $130. Bhat, a novice farmer who entered the business out of his own volition, could afford it. However, the device is out of reach for many due to its high price. India’s workforce comprises more than half of the country’s population. There are few other options. Most of them have landholdings less than two acres, about the size a soccer pitch. They struggle to make ends meets.
Global heating has been a factor in 59,000 suicides in India since 1980, as failing harvests push farmers further into poverty, according to a University of California, Berkeley report. According to the 2017 study, for every 1° Celsius (1.8° Fahrenheit), increase in temperature, 67 more suicides will be likely each growing season.
Malan Raut inspecting the crops on her small piece of land
Malan Raut, a 35 year-old farmer who owns two acres in a village in Maharashtra, is an example of a rural farmer. Raut lost her crops to floods in 2020. In an effort to make a profit, Raut planted Fenugreek in 2020. However, this time it was not rising waters that threatened her harvest.
Raut lost approximately $1,000 to deer raids last August on her vegetable garden. She said that the deer had taken the greens and left only the stalks. She then turned to another tech solution, also manufactured by Ayan’s firm Katidhan, and donated by a women’s farming cooperative.
A scarecrow stands in her 1-acre vegetable garden. Instead of a mudpot for a head there’s a boxy device that flashes all night and has a solar-powered flashing flashlight. Raut’s fenugreek plants survived this year.
Getting used to the light and sound
These devices have their limitations. Raut’s neighbors use sound devices similar to Bhat’s but more affordable to keep animals away. She claims that it disturbs the peace and quiet. While these systems can be annoying to human neighbors and others, researchers have found that it is only a matter for the animals to get used to the noise.
Shaurabh anand studies human-wildlife conflicts in India for the World Resources Institute (a US-based environmental organization). He said that while monkeys may initially seem startled, they soon learn to ignore the blaring sounds and continue raiding farms.
Anand stated, “What we have seen is that acoustic repellents are not at all effective in deterring these monkeys.”
Bhat has for now attached the monkey repeller at the west end of his farm to a 10-foot-long electric pole. It is far enough away from his house that the noise doesn’t bother him. He has seen the monkeys adapt to it.
He said, “I saw the monkeys approaching and this one was making some noise and they running away.” “But these monkeys, being smart, have now stopped coming from that direction and started entering from other directions.”
Edited by Ruby Russell
