The men who love and take care of elephants in the Central Highlands

VietNamNet Bridge – The members of the Dak Lak Elephant Conservation Center are all “amateurs” as they were never professionally trained to take care of elephants. However, their love for and understanding of the animals is well known. Workers at the conservation center are taking care for elephants At the center, Pham Van Thinh, head of the “tamed elephant” conservation division, is called ‘Mr tamed elephant’, while Do Viet Thu, head of the wild elephant conservation division, is called ‘Mr wild elephant’.Decreasing numbers Wild elephants are getting aggressive, and damaging crops fields and houses because the forests, their habitat, are increasingly occupied by humans. Wild elephants are getting aggressive, and damaging crops fields and houses because the forests, their habitat, are increasingly occupied by humans. RELATED NEWS Elephants continue to damage crops as conservation project remains on paper

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Wild and tame elephants in Đắk Lắk’s clash for food

There have been at least five clashes recently between wild elephants in search of food and tame elephants in the Central Highlands province of Đắk Lắk’s Buôn Đôn District.

Most recently, on Monday, a herd with seven wild elephants attacked and injured two tame elephants at Forest Management Station No. 6 in Yok Đôn National Forest.

Huỳnh Trung Luân, director of the provincial Elephant Preservation Centre, said on Thursday that statistics with the centre from March till date shows the five conflicts occurred as wild elephants have been coming closer to human inhabitations such as forest management stations and local residents’ fields in search of food. So far, seven tame elephants have been injured, and one has died.

Luân said this problem is the result of the decline in forest area; wild elephants move towards inhabitations as they cannot find sufficient food in the forests. Another reason is that when wild male elephants are in rut, they are very violent and they attack the tame male elephants to get access to the females.

To reduce such conflicts, the centre has asked the tame elephants’ owners and tourism businesses using tame elephants to take steps to protect their elephants better, and not let their elephants wander into areas where wild elephants are typically spotted. Also, the tame elephants should not be chained in the forest in the evening, instead they should be brought home and protected, Luân said.
If there are such conflicts, residents should report the incident to the centre or local authorities who can step in and drive away the wild herds safely.

In the past few decades, the number of tame elephants in Đắk Lắk has seen a serious decline, from 502 in 1980 to the current 43. The main reason for this is that the number of tame elephants that bear a calf is few. At present, one female elephant is pregnant and expected to deliver next month, a positive sign as this is the first time in 30 years that a tame elephant in the province will bear a calf.
The Đắk Lắk Elephant Preservation Centre has joined hands with foreign experts to create conducive conditions for female elephants to bear calves.

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Vietnam seeks ways to protect elephants

VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam is estimated to have 120 wild elephants and 45 domesticated ones, which are feared to disappear one day from the country without timely conservation action.

As wild elephants in Vietnam are on the verge of extinction, the World Wide Fund for Nature in Vietnam, better known as WWF Vietnam, and Yok Don National Park (YDNP) have pledged to embark on an emergency action plan until 2020 to protect elephants in the area.

WWF Vietnam said in a press release that the aim is to enhance law enforcement and minimize human-elephant conflict by taking into account the seasonal migration patterns of elephants and forest-reliant livelihoods for locals.

In fact, the launch of an elephant conservation program in Vietnam is an urgent step, as local authorities have seized tons of ivory smuggled into Vietnam. This had raised public concerns that smugglers will turn to domestic ivory supplies to meet their demand.

Early this year, there were 48 tamed elephants in Daklak Province, but three have died. Meanwhile, the number of wild elephants is estimated at some 120, with around 70 in YDNP alone, said the national steering committee of the elephant conservation.

The country’s herd of wild elephants has declined by a sharp 95% in 40 years from 1975 to 2015. In Daklak alone, at least 23 wild elephants have been found dead in the 2009-2016 period, accounting for 25% of the total, of which nearly 75% are less-than-12-month ones, according to the Vietnam Administration of Forestry under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The Central Highlands is home to the largest forest elephant population in Vietnam, making up 70% of the total. Therefore, the protection of the elephants in the area will be the most effective conservation solution to Vietnam’s Asian wild elephants.

Van Ngoc Thinh, country director of WWF Vietnam, said elephants require large-scale and seamless wildlife habitats to live and develop. Their living environment and migration corridors have been increasingly narrow and unsafe.

To protect elephants, WWF Vietnam will apply the spatial monitoring and reporting tool (SMART) to measure data, monitor elephant herds and relevant conservation activities at the park.

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Elephant reportedly dies of exhaustion while serving tourists in Vietnam; gayal drops dead

A 40-year-old elephant has died while serving travelers at a tourist site in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak, while a gayal has also beathed its last in Ninh Thuan Province in the south-central region.

The People’s Committee of Krong Na Commune, Buon Don District in Dak Lak said on Sunday that local agencies have made a report about the death of the elephant.

The animal died of exhaustion while serving tourists at the Ban Don tourist area, according to news website VietNamNet.

Another news website reported that the animal met its end while carrying tourists in the site.

Competent agencies examined the body before destroying it according to current regulations.

The dead animal was owned by Y Ka Tuk, a local man, who has conducted an offering ceremony for it in accordance with local traditional customs.

When alive, the elephant was worth VND700 million (US$32,830).

On January 15 in the same province, another tamed elephant, which was 36 years old, fell down a hill and slipped away.

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