Dong Nai adds more electric fences to protect wild elephants

Dong Nai Province will add more than 20km of electric fence to minimise conflicts between wild elephants and residents in the area.

The Department of Planning and Investment has been working with various units to evaluate the project.

The new fences, which are 20km in length, will extend from Dinh Quan District to Vinh Cuu District. The investment of VNĐ20 billion (US$867) was sourced from state and local budgets.

According to Dong Nai Province’s Forest Department, a herd of 16 elephants has damaged crops and orchards in Dinh Quan District 35 times since the beginning of the year.

Nguyen Viet Phuc, a farmer in Dinh Quan District, said six wild elephants had destroyed his banana crop in only one night.

Due to conflicts between wild elephants and people, a 50-km electric fence was erected from Dinh Quan District to Vinh Cuu District in July last year with capital of VNĐ85 billion (US$3.75 million).

The 50km electric fence is part of the elephant conservation project which began in 2104 and will end in 2020.

However, the former electric fence has yet to separate residential areas and farming areas from natural forests where wild elephants live.

Le Viet Dung, deputy head of Dong Nai Province’s Forest Protection, said that two herds of wild elephants exist in the area. Each of them has six to seven animals per herd.

The elephants have moved along the area of the fence to the end of the fence, destroying farmer’s crops and houses, he added. —

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