However, the team will send a report to the ministry by Wednesday with a recommendation to complete the fencing by November when rice planting starts in the area. "Although the possibility of attacks is minimal at present, fencing work has to be completed by November-December when the villagers start planting rice as this will lure the wild elephants back into the area," Santosh Shah, WWF-Nepal special policies and program coordinator and a member of the technical team, said.
Shah added, "The committee did not find any heavy loss of property due to the incidents in February. The government has already approved a compensation mechanism in case of deaths due to attacks by wild animal in future."
The committee will also include in its recommendation the need to update the power fence and for effective monitoring and maintenance of the fence.
“The locals have to be well-trained to operate the electric fence as the villagers did not know how to use the battery-run machines in the past,” Nepal said.
He further said that the team was satisfied with the progress on the fencing work undertaken by the local administrations with help from local political party leaders and villagers. The fencing is being done at a distance of 15 km from the river belt. A sum of Rs 3 million was allocated last fiscal year for the electric fencing.
The other members of the committee were Dr Shanta Raj Gyawali, a Bardiya-based wildlife biologist of the Nepal Trust for Nature Conservation, Hem Aryal, District Forest Officer, and Nilamber Mishra, Warden of the Koshi-Tappu region.
MoFSC formed the team in mid-July at the height of pressure emanating from locals of Jhapa, who were enraged at government inaction and apathy towards their plight.
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