The Sagteng Wildlife Sanctuary and agriculture officials are helping people of Joenkhar in the installation of electric fencing in their village. The 11.5 kilometre fencing is expected to help farmers in guarding their crops against monkeys, porcupines and other wild animals.
Joenkhar is the only village in Sagteng where farming is practiced. The people in the village also grow vegetables and maize. But they lose almost half of the harvest to wild animals.
“During the day, it’s monkeys that we have to chase away and at night we have to watch out for porcupines,” said Trongko, a villager.
T
he Tshogpa of Sagteng Gewog, Sangay Tashi, said the animals are a real nuisance. “Each household has about four acres of land on which they grow vegetables and other crops,” he said. “We hope the electric fencing will help protect the agricultural fields in the village.”
The fencing will benefit 69 households of Joenkhar. “We have wanted to install electric fencing in the village for a while now but lack of fund prevented us from doing so,” said Sangay Chophel, the Park Range Officer of Sagteng Wildlife Sanctuary.
“The farmers are required to guard their crops from the time the seeds are sown till harvest time. We hope they will not have to do that now with the electric fencing.”
The fencing, worth over Nu 2m, is being installed with funds from the World Wildlife Fund.
