This is very interesting news,
particularly as it also applies to other herbivores. Rhinos are quite believable as they are not
the sharpest tools in the woodshed. Yet
this also sounds like a great barrier for deer.
On the other hand, somehow I do not see this discouraging an elephant
any time soon.
After saying all that this also
provides an important ingredient to the creation of permanent forest edge
barrier zones whose purpose is to discourage larger animals from coming out
into fields.
My first component would be to
plant a staggered row of hawthorn trees able to overlap each other as they
mature. This happens to be the backbone
of European hedge systems anyway. Since
the plants are meant to grow into apple tree sized specimens, it is also
necessary to maintain an apron in front of the barrier some fifteen feet or so
across. This could readily be planted
with chamomile. The barrier itself can
by placed into the forest edge to lower the amount of land needed.
Such a barrier would become
impenetrable to deer and humans for that matter. The main difficulty will be to harvest the
berries conveniently or even to maintain it properly.
Once established, such a wild
wood barrier should easily do its job and the bonus of the chamomile is that it
discourages curiosity about the nearby field at least through smell. Maintenance itself should remain minimal.
Nepalese use chamomile to scare off wayward rhinos
AFP, KATHMANDU
It can soothe a troubled mind and calm a rebellious gut, but a remote
Nepalese forest community has discovered another unlikely use for chamomile —
it scares away unruly rhinos.
The ethnic Tharu people who live beneath the southern foothills of the Himalayas have been plagued for generations by the
one-horned rhinoceros, which ventures onto their land, trampling crops and
sometimes injuring villagers.
Loath to use violent means to keep the endangered grazing species at
bay, they discovered that planting the daisy-like chamomile on the edge of the
forest would ward off their nuisance neighbors, who hate the smell.
“It works as a barrier. Because of the peculiar smell of this
unpalatable [herb] ... it helps to stop wildlife from entering farmland. It
works not only for rhinos, but also other herbivores,” said Suman Bhattarai of
the Partnership for Rhino Conservation, which helps Nepalis live side-by-side
with the rhino.
The Tharu are said to be direct descendants of Buddha and to have lived
for centuries in the forests of the Terai, a narrow strip of land which extends
for 900km along the southern border of Nepal
Their innovative use of chamomile has seen the tribespeople of
Suryapattuwa village shortlisted for the BBC’s US$20,000 World Challenge Award,
which rewards enterprise helping to maintain sustainable local communities.
“Animals from the nearby buffer zone area of the Bardiya National Park Nepal ,”
community leader Mangal Tharu Yogi told the Kathmandu
Post.
While large herbivores baulk at the pungent odor, chamomile is used to
treat a wide variety of human complaints, including indigestion, heartburn and
vertigo.
Bhattarai said tribespeople who might not be inclined to spend time
growing a crop they cannot eat should think of selling it as an herbal remedy
as well as using it as a deterrent.
Thousands of greater one-horned rhinos, also known as the Indian
rhinoceros, once roamed Nepal
and northern India
Wildlife experts spent a month earlier this year conducting an
exhaustive survey and counted 534 rhinos in Nepal’s southern forests — 99 more
than when the last such study was carried out in 2008.
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