News
NERD comes up with sturdier, taller elephant electric fence for Weerawila outdoor prison
View(s):
Text and pix by Rekaha Tharanagani Fonseka
J.D.K Samaranayake
A newly invented electric fence to deter elephants will be for the first time installed around the Weerawila outdoor prisons by the National Engineering Research and Development Centre (NERD).
The fence, that stands 16-feet tall hangs from curved concrete pillars making it difficult for the elephants to bring them down.
Following many facility tests the fence is bring installed around the 157 acre outdoor prison.
The project that costs Rs. 18 million is being provided by the Prisons decentralised fund.
Residents in the area say the previous elephant fence was only 5.5 feet highand elephants had ways and means to destroy the fence. Some electric fence poles used to fall for the slightest shower of rain they said.
An Engineer at the Prisons Department, Ranjaya Jayasekara told the Sunday Times that initially the fence would cover a stretch of four kilometres of the 157-acre Weerawila prison premises.
He said elephants used to break the old fence, enter the premises and destroy cultivated crops.
He said about one year had been spent on testing errors on this fence.
Ranjaya Jayasekara
NERD Director General Dr, Jayathu Gunathilake Samarawickrema said they had subjected the elephant fence and the energizer to many testes before being installed.
He explained that when the inventor of the energizer brought the device to them they found small glitches such as ceasing to function during thunder storms, and lacking a method to indicate than an elephant had made contact with the fence.
Dr Samarawickrema pointed out that the elephants are unable to topple the 16 feet high curved pillars.
The manufacturer and inventor of the elephant fence J.D.K Samaranayake that the new elephant fence was built after carrying out many experiments.
He said when an elephant touches the fence the elephant would receive a non-lethal electrical shock. The shock would not burn the animal’s skin or endanger its life.
The best way to say that you found the home of your dreams is by finding it on Hitad.lk. We have listings for apartments for sale or rent in Sri Lanka, no matter what locale you're looking for! Whether you live in Colombo, Galle, Kandy, Matara, Jaffna and more - we've got them all!