Saturday, October 21, 2006

Elephants trample village crops

Elephants trample village crops

VietNamNet Bridge – Four wild elephants are damaging crops and causing concern among residents in the central province of Quang Nam's Tra Doc Commune, with some villagers criticising local authorities for not responding to the problem soon enough.

Local residents are now using traditional methods such as lighting fires and banging gongs to drive away the elephants, but they are prohibited to kill or hunt the animals.
Village 5, located about four hours walk from Tra Doc Commune's centre, has 44 households.

The community of 260 Ca Dong ethnic minority people said they are worried about the elephants, who have repeatedly damaged rice and subsidiary crops, especially during the night.
One local farmer whose crops have been damaged, Ho Van Truong, said his family members' long and hard work on their farm had been completely ruined one night due to the elephants.
Truong said the elephants had trampled about one ha of rice and many areas of subsidiary crops in the village, and also damaged watch towers.

"Local residents don't dare to go to the field to harvest subsidiary crop," said Truong.
Chairman of the commune's People's Committee, Ho Cao Quy, said local authorities had reported the damage to the Forest Management Department and People's Committee in Bac Tra My District and asked them for relevant measures to solve the problem, but they apparently need support from higher levels.

Quy said communal authorities had investigated the damaged areas and encouraged people to not sleep in watch towers at night.

(Source: Viet Nam News)
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/social/2006/10/624688/

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