Tackling the problem of open wells
If you’re a regular browser of videos on You Tube or any other such channel, you may well have seen videos of animals who have got stuck in wells.
Animals who fall into wells may or may not be rescued
If they are not rescued, they may either die of starvation or drowning.
For instance, a leopard and elephant both got stuck. They were fortunate and were rescued by kindly villagers – but the question is, can future falls into wells be prevented?
Wildlife SOS are based in India – they are celebrating 30 years of saving India’s wildlife - and they have a number of conservation projects. One of these is the Open Well Conservation Project.
The open wells they tackle give access to groundwater. This means that people can relocate away from rivers. They will have access to water to irrigate their fields. The problem is that they are from 1 to 70 metres deep, and 2 to 20 metres in diameter, and most have no lid or barrier to stop animals from falling in. The animals who fall in either drown or die from starvation.
Wildlife SOS has rescued leopards, barn owls, sambar deer, cobras, jackals, civets and others from such a fate, and so it opened the Open Wells Conservation Project, the aim being to cover Maharashtra’s open wells.
The video below shows how deep the wells can be - this wild sloth bear would have no chance of getting out, if the bear hadn't been rescued by Wildlife SOS.
The project kicked off in 2022, and soon discovered that it wasn’t possible to fill the wells in, because people needed them for water. Research teams identified the wells from which animals had been rescued, and Wildlife SOS strives to cover them all with great care, using expert welders and strong materials to survive deterioration.
Local farmers were involved in giving assistance and advice about the design, usuability and maintenance of wells and by June 2023, 11 open wells had been covered. In 2024, 14 open wells were covered by the month of June.
It’s essential the covers consist of materials which are durable, and that the projects work in tandem with the needs of the local community.