Wild elephants terrorise Ha Tinh

HA TINH — Hundreds of households in Huong Dien and Huong Quang communes in the central province of Ha Tinh have raised their concerns over wild elephants who have left nearby Vu Quang National Park to forage for food.

According to local authorities, the communes stand on the boundary of the park and wild elephants have sometimes been known to enter into residential areas looking for food such as corn, bananas and sugarcane.

"The wild elephants usually appear at the midnight. They have crushed motorbikes, pulled up electricity pylons, damaged crops and even threatened people's safety," said chairman of Huong Dien Commune's People's Committee Tran Viet Ha.

"People's lives are being destroyed," Ha said.

Phan Dinh Ha, a resident in Kieu Village in Huong Dien Commune, said it had taken the elephants only a short time to turn fruit orchards into what resembled a storm-hit area.

Another villager, Phan Thi Loan, said a herd of elephants had destroyed her garden several months ago.

"My husband was away from home, so I could do nothing, I just took my little child and ran away. My garden was totally destroyed," Loan said.

Statistics from the commune showed that there were five cases of wild elephant attacks on residents while they were driving motorbikes in the commune last year and five motorbikes had been completely destroyed. There were several cases of elephants destroying, but no casualties so far had been reported.

Dao Duy Phien, the Vu Quang National Park's director, said the herd of elephants were found living in the park 30 years ago, but they've recently become dangerous due to a shortage of male elephants, especially during breeding season between January and April.

Phien said most of local residents used methods such as lighting fires or creating noise to drive the elephants away.

According to animal experts, the elephants were not dangerous, but they could attack people if they wanted to enlarge territory, as their living environment had been seriously encroached upon by human activity.

Chairman of the commune Ha said the methods used to scare the elephants would be no longer effective as the elephants had become familiar with them. However, new scare-tactics involving explosives would require time and effort to train people to use them properly without harming the elephants.

"The authorities have proposed to district-level authorities to use explosives to frighten the animals. We have also warned people not to go out late at night to avoid them," Ha said.

Ha said the district authority has supplied food for 15 households who had 2 hectares of crops destroyed by elephants some months ago. — VNS