Close-up of two wild elephants destroying acacia plantations of people in Nghe An

On the morning of October 24, Mr. Truong Van Hoai (resident of Dom 1 village, Chau Phong commune, Quy Chau district) had to work very hard to chase away a herd of two elephants from his acacia garden. They only came to eat grass, but trampled many small acacia trees that Mr. Hoai's family had just planted.

According to local people, these two wild elephants have appeared near the residential area for about a week now. On October 23, these two elephants appeared in the Huoi Phung area and then broke through the barbed wire fence of Mr. Hoai's acacia garden to eat grass. Mr. Hoai and many people used many methods to chase them away such as lighting fires, beating wooden fish... but these two elephants still refused to leave. On the morning of October 24, they continued to break the fence to move to the adjacent acacia garden.

About a week ago, these two elephants also appeared in the Huoi Pung area, Chau Phong commune and destroyed the garden, crops, and bananas of a household in Luong village. After that, these two elephants moved across provincial road 544. "Previously, these two elephants only appeared for a few days and then moved to another area. However, I don't understand why these two elephants stayed for so long and destroyed people's crops like this," said Mr. Hoai.

Two wild elephants and their babies in Mr. Hoai's acacia garden. Photo: D.T.

Speaking to Nghe An Newspaper, an official from Pu Mat National Park who specializes in studying wild elephants in Nghe An said that these two elephants are mother and child. Their habitat is the natural forests of Chau Hanh and Chau Phong communes (Quy Chau district). Previously, this herd of elephants was quite large, but was gradually killed, leaving only these two mother and child. The peak was about 30 years ago, when two male elephants in the herd were killed for their tusks.

According to locals, the mother elephant was old and had one eye missing, most likely from a gunshot wound. The baby elephant had recently grown up, almost as big as its mother. However, the herd was no longer able to grow due to the lack of male elephants.

According to statistics from Pu Mat National Park, Nghe An has about 14 to 16 wild elephants, the locality with the third largest number of wild elephants in the country (after Dak Lak and Dong Nai provinces). Of these, 11 to 13 live in the Pu Mat National Park area. The remaining 3, including 1 female elephant living alone in the area of ​​2 communes Nam Son, Bac Son of Quy Hop district and a herd of 2 mother and baby elephants in Chau Phong commune.

Although there are still quite a few wild elephant herds, most of the elephant herds in Nghe An are isolated and have no potential to develop. Many elephants have lived alone for decades, often returning to residential areas to destroy crops and conflict with humans. Without measures to merge with other herds, these elephant herds will gradually be eliminated over time.