DWC’s inspection reveals 583 faulty private electric fences

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The Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) inspection has revealed that 583 out of 2009 electric fence built and maintained privately were faulty.

The inspection was made with intentions of reducing the deaths of elephants and wild animals by electrocution as faulty electric fences too contribute to animal deaths as well as endanger the safety of its users.

The inspection was carried out in the backdrop of 72 elephant deaths which occurred last year due to electrocution.The number of elephant deaths due to electrocution had exceeded the previous four years.

Therefore wildlife officers had advised people who maintained private electric fences to rectify the faults in their fences, and were warned that they would carry out sudden inspections in future.

The inspection had also revealed that only 147 private electric fences have been erected according to the DWC’s standards and had been approved by them. It was also observed that the these fences did not record any issues.

The persons who maintained faulty electric fences lacked knowledge on use of electric fences, and they lacked knowledge that their electric fences could have caused fatal accidents.

Observations were made that the faulty fences had alternating electricity, simple streams of electricity with high voltage, unsafely keeping the controls of electric fences within houses, and a lack of using warning signs to educate people. The officials also had made observations that there was no information regarding the manufacturers as well as usage of parts of electronic items to set up the fence.

The DWC stated that they also received positive feedback from the persons who maintained electric fences and they requested information on reputed electric fence manufacturers. Accordingly the owners of electric fences have considered the inspection as an opportunity to learn of the faultiness in their fences and rectify them.

The persons who maintained faulty electric fences had agreed to shut down their electric fences until rectifications are done as well as to immediately remove parts of the electric fences which have issues.