17 year old boy from Bihar designs cattle safety rope using semiconductors and 12v battery

Villagers in Seemanchal, comprising Purnia, Katihar, Kishanganj and Araria districts of Bihar, said cattle theft was rampant in the region and a device like safety rope was much needed to check the menace.

People at Kaithadove, a nondescript tribal village in northeast Bihar, are happy that they will no more have to lose sleep over fear of cattle theft. A Class 12 student from the village in Purnia district, 368 kms north east of Patna, has given them hope that a safety rope, designed by him, will soon protect their cattleheads from pilferage.

Jabal Tudu and Matal Hansda, two of the villagers whose cattleheads were stolen in the last two years, said they were keen to install the device. “Cattle theft is rampant in the region and a safety device like this was much needed to check the menace,” they said.

Rajesh Hansda, 17, who has designed the safety rope, is also optimistic that the device will keep the cattle thieves at bay.

“I have seen my villagers suffer after their cattle were stolen. Two buffalos and three cows, belonging to my family were stolen on one night. Tears in the eyes of my father and uncle after the incident prompted me to design the cattle safety rope,” said the Class 12 student of ML Arya College, Kasba, 11 kms north of Purnia.

Son on Bisho Hansda, 45, and Sonamani Devi, 40, Rajesh Hansda said the safety rope, which needed a 12 volt battery to operate, had an insulated copper or aluminum wire, a relay (electrically operated switch) and a diode (a semiconductor device with two terminals allowing the flow of current in one direction only) fitted in it.

“When the circuit is complete, it is linked to an alarm. As soon as the wire, used for tying a cattlehead, is cut or broken, it sets the alarm bell ringing,” Rajesh Hansda said, adding that the device was not expensive. “You only need to purchase the battery,” he said.

The model of the safety rope was first displayed by him at a science exhibition in the district in 2014 when he was a high school student at Dhamdaha, 33 kms south west of Purnia, said Rajesh Hansda, while thanking his school teacher for helping him with the project.

“The device would not have taken shape had my high school teacher Santosh Kumar not guided me,” he added.

“The model was highly appreciated at the 5th National Level Exhibition and Project Competition 2015, organised under the Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) award scheme by the Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, at IIT-Delhi in December, 2015, he said.

Rajesh Hansda also got a chance to visit Japan on May 27 under an exchange programme along with 56 others whose models were selected at the competition. He returned from Japan on June 4.

A report prepared by the Kishanganj office of Border Security Force (BSF) said about one lakh cattleheads were either smuggled to Bangladesh or sold to hundreds of slaughterhouses in Seemanchal, comprising Purnia, Katihar, Kishanganj and Araria districts, every year. About 25,000 cattleheads were seized only in 2015 and most of them were stolen, the report added.

Source: Aditya Nath Jha- HT

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