Dynamic solutions needed to end human/wild elephant conflict

The elephant is Thailand’s national animal and plays a major role in traditions, culture and beliefs. The country celebrates National Elephant Day on March 13 to promote the preservation of the great beast.

The kingdom is home to both wild and domesticated elephants. While wild elephants are protected under the Wildlife Preservation and Protection Act, domesticated elephants come under the Beasts of Burden Act.

Situation now severe

According to the latest report from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP), between 4,013 and 4,422 wild elephants live in 93 preserved forests nationwide.

However, the elephants are increasingly crossing into areas used by humans, particularly from some 70 preserved forests in Eastern Thailand. The pachyderms are coming out of the forests to seek food in the form of agriculture crops and sometimes attack residents.

A report from the DNP’s Wildlife Conservation Office calculated that elephants killed 21 people and injured another 29 last year. Similarly, 24 elephants died due to conflict with humans.

Such elephant behaviour is often caused by forest disturbances involving the illegal felling of trees and forest encroachment for agriculture and livestock.

Saengduean Chailert, founder and chairwoman of the Save Elephant Foundation, claimed that elephants have become aggressive because residents use weapons like ping-pong bombs, a table tennis ball-shaped explosive, against them.

“The situation is worrisome because if we do not take action, we will lose more elephants and people,” she said.

Database needed to solve conflict

The Save Elephant Foundation founder noted that the conflict between wild elephants and locals persists due to government agencies’ failure to tackle the issue proactively and effectively.

Saengduean said the government’s budget allocation for building fences was not a good idea because elephants are clever enough to destroy them.

“Some residents decry receiving compensation of around 200 baht per tree because one durian tree could generate up to 100,000 baht for them,” she said.

To tackle the conflict effectively, Saengduean advised government agencies to develop a database of elephants to study their behaviour and the factors that are forcing them to escape the preserved forests. These could include insufficient food and water, she added.

“Those who work with wild elephants must be aware of what pachyderms’ need before forcing them back into the forest,” she said, “We need to map locations elephants have visited. If the beasts changed routes over the past 10 years, we need to find out why.”

She said African elephant experts took a long time to develop a database of elephants on their continent using both technology and area surveys.

Conflicts should be solved continuously

Relevant agencies should further develop solutions to the conflict between wild elephants and humans as certain solutions could be effective at some points in time but not others, said Taweepoke Angkawanish, chief vet and head division of elephant conservation at Thai Elephant Conservation Centre.

“If we tackle the issue without knowing the cause, it will be only effective for a while,” he said.

He said relevant agencies should look for solutions in terms of elephants’ behaviour and areas they visited. Male elephants usually seek new feeding grounds after losing the fight against other elephants for the right to mate, he explained.

Taweepoke added that agencies should also look at how each area has been used by the elephants. According to a study in India, female elephants require 30-40 square kilometres each to live, while male elephants need 170 square kilometres each, he added.