Farmers turn to tech to keep nilgais at bay

Time of India

21 hours ago

Patna: It takes nearly two months for a farmer to grow a crop, but nilgais can destroy it in just two hours. That is the bitter reality many cultivators in Bihar face. The nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus), Asia's largest antelope, has become an uninvited night-time marauder, raiding agricultural fields under the cover of darkness.
For farmers already reeling from drought, heavy rainfall and pest attacks, the blue bull menace is yet another blow.
The situation has grown so severe that the govt authorised the culling of 4,279 nilgais in the past year, a figure disclosed in the state assembly in March.
But environmentalists and agricultural scientists warn that culling is not the answer. They blame rampant deforestation for forcing these wild animals to seek food in villages and fields.
"Sanctuaries should be created for them so they don't migrate to villages," said Anil Kumar Singh, director (research) at Bihar Agricultural University (BAU). Until that happens, scientists are looking for ways to mitigate the damage and fencing appears at the top of their list.
For many farmers, the simplest and most viable solution is fencing, including electric barriers that deliver a non-fatal 220-volt shock for just two milliseconds.
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Anand Murari, a farmer from Mokama in Patna district, said most cultivators opt for these electric deterrents, locally called "jhatka" machines. Given frequent power cuts in villages, battery and solar-powered fences are increasingly being used to keep nilgais at bay.
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research-RCER in Patna has gone a step further, deploying AI-enabled surveillance and animal-scare devices to protect its farms.
Developed and patented by a Bhagalpur-based startup, the system uses an electronic sensor, a 5MP day-and-night-vision camera (with a 90-metre daytime range and 45 metres at night) and AI algorithms to detect intrusions.
"Whenever an animal enters, a light switches on automatically and a hooter sounds to scare it away. The machine also sends the farmer an alert with an image so they can intervene," said Ajit Kumar, an IIT-Kharagpur alumnus who founded the startup.
The hooter sounds are species-specific. "For nilgai, it's got a cracker and clapping sound. We record and store it in the device memory. Its reaction time is four to five seconds. There is a separate mode for human intruders as well," he said. The device, priced at around Rs 42,500, comes with a solar panel and battery and has shown 100% success during trials in Bhagalpur in 2021.
Some researchers advocate using smell to repel nilgais.
Farmers can spread a mixture of nilgai dung and water on their fields or use fermented concoctions of buttermilk, garlic and neem leaves or even rotten eggs. Others suggest domestication.
"Domestication of nilgai, which is often hunted in several parts of the world for its high-quality meat, is already a success in Malaysia," said Suday Prasad, principal researcher of a project at VKS College of Agriculture in Buxar district.
"Nilgai's by-products like milk and dung may be beneficial," he added.
Despite these measures, scientists and farmers agree that controlling the population is important. "Nilgais mostly give birth to twins and they become adults in 18 months," said Murari. Singh said under natural conditions, a square kilometre of pasture can support only five to eight nilgais.
"But they are quick breeders, giving birth in 180 days. It is 1.8 calves per nilgai. A male mostly keeps a herd of 10-20 females. So, castrating a male nilgai, or blue bull, because of their skin colour can help control their population," he said.
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