Riya Katariya, a student of IB 2…, driven by her goal to help farmers struggling with the problem of animals destroying their fields and plantations, created a device which uses the acoustic behavior of animals to manipulate their movements.

Riya said that ‘I found out about this pressing issue when my mother told me about how farmers, just to keep the animals away, beat drums all night- hearing about this made me think about how I can help them and that’s when I came up with this device.’

The device is low cost and solar-powered device- making it an economical solution for Indian farmers who are now hugely benefitting from it. Riya submitted her prototype and won the ‘JK innovation challenge’ as a result of how environment-friendly, cost-effective and innovative her idea is. She feels that the most important part of this process for her weren’t the awards or recognition she received, but the fact that she solved a real-life issue and greatly reduced the crop damage inflicted on farmers.