Elephant scare a bygone in Birgaon village post electrification

Having lived in fear of wild elephants for decades, inhabitants of this tiny hamlet under Gumla district feel a lot safer today, thanks to electrification.

Due to solar street lights in Birgaon village, now the elephants no more enter and ransack the houses in search of food, say inhabitants.


"Ever since we got electricity in our houses in December last year, there has not been a single case of elephant trespassing into this village," Sunda Munda, an inhabitant of Birgaon said.

Birgaon is among 11 other villages in Jharkhand which have been electrified by Azure Power- an independent solar service provider.

The company has set up a mini grid of 6 KW in the village, which has a population of over 100 people. The grid provides per household power to run 3 LED bulbs. Besides, each household has access to two power sockets.

Birgaon now has access to power supply for 14 hours, said Bikas Kumar, Deputy Manager (Infra) Azure Power.

In a tender floated by Jharkhand Renewable Energy Development Agency last year, Azure Power won a project to electrify 320 households across 11 villages in Gumla and Hazaribagh districts of the state.

Besides providing security to the villagers, the electricity has brought down the consumption of kerosene oil to almost nil.

"Now I no more buy kerosene to burn lamps, so I save around Rs 200 every month," Navita Munda, another villager of Birgaon said.

The villagers have all the more reasons to cherish now as they don't have to walk down to the neighbouring village, almost 4-km away, to buy kerosene.

Munda said children of the village are the happier lot now as they can study during night as well.


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