Chile peppers to ward off elephants

Bands of elephants are a constant danger for villages in northeastern India.

As humans go on clear-cutting the elephants' natural habitats, more and more elephant attacks on human encampments are recorded. As a result, villagers have started poisoning the elephants.

Here comes the solution from wildlife experts. As the Associated Press reports:

"We fill straw nests with pungent dry chili and attach them to sticks before burning it. The fireball emits a strong pungent smell that succeeds in driving away elephants," Nandita Hazarika of the Assam Haathi (Elephant) Project told the Associated Press.

Apparently the elephants do not eat the chilies because the smell repels them, and the measures would not harm the animals.

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