Hundreds of people in southern Dong Nai Provinces Vinh Cuu District are being threatened by seven wild elephants who have left the 100,000ha Vinh Cuu Nature Reserve.
Hundreds of people in southern Dong Nai Provinces Vinh Cuu District are being threatened by seven wild elephants who have left the 100,000ha Vinh Cuu Nature Reserve.
Local authorities said the residential areas of the commune were next to the unfenced reserve and wild elephants had moved in looking for food.
"The wild elephants usually appear between midnight and early morning," said Forest Warden Unit deputy head Pham Ngoc Thom. "They have crushed houses, motorbikes, pulled up electricity pylons, damaged crops and even threatened peoples safety."
The seven elephants were from a herd of 11 in the reserve. On Wednesday they destroyed three houses, hundreds of fruit trees and dozens of metres of water pipes.
This was not the first trail of destruction from the elephants, Thom said. Two months ago the same elephants destroyed dozens of houses and many orchards and last year they came about 20 times.
Animal experts said the elephants were not dangerous, but they could attack people if their living environment was seriously encroached upon by human activities.
Thom said residents previously drove the elephants away by scattering chilli around their houses, lighting fires or creating noises. But the elephants had become accustomed to those measures, so scare tactics were called for.
It was proposed to train people to use explosives without harming the elephants, but that would take time, Thom said.
Reserve deputy director Nguyen Danh Bao said the reserve had co-operated with authorities to supervise the movement of the elephants 24 hours a day to warn people about their movements.
The long-term solution was an electric fence, but that would be expensive and need "more time and more studies", Bao said.
(Source: VNS)
