How can solar lights save tigers in the Sundarbans biosphere reserve?
© WWW India
The use of a renewable non-polluting and viable source of energy that at one go helps tackle human-animal conflict and also lights up the lives of communities. This is the goals of the new, innovative method being employed to prevent tigers from entering Sunderbans’ village – solar lights.
People in the Sundarbans are continually exposed to hazards that have become everyday and usual to them – snake-bites and tiger attacks are not uncommon threats for people inhabiting these secluded mangroves. With Sundarban tigers capable of swimming great distances and at speeds of around 16km/hr, living on an island is no protection from a tiger. Incidents of tigers straying into villages located on the edges of the Sundarbans forested islands have been on the rise in the recent past with an average of 12 incidents per year!
WWF-India has been setting up solar street lights in villages along the forest edge, which seems to discourage tigers and other wildlife from straying into these areas. Not a single tiger straying incidence has been reported from locations where solar lights have been installed!
Plus d'informations:
UNESCO’s actions on climate change mitigation and adaptation- Inde / EarthHour
