Suddenly, the cranes are absent from Van Yen.

"A good place attracts good people."

Located along National Highway 7A, at the border between Yen Thanh and Do Luong districts, Van Yen village (Hoa Son - Do Luong) is surrounded by mountains, forests, and two large lakes, Khe Du and Khe Ho. In the middle of the lakes rises an island with hundreds of densely packed bamboo groves, known as Dong Tron (Round Cave). For over 10 years, Dong Tron has also been known as Dong Co (Crane Cave), because it is home to a large number of cranes. Every year, around the 10th lunar month, when the lakes are full, flocks of tens of thousands of cranes arrive, covering the bamboo forest in white. The thick bamboo stalks, as thick as a man's arm, bend under the weight of dozens of cranes preening their feathers after a day of foraging. Thousands of cranes flap their wings and return, their clamoring as they compete for roosting spots creating a lively atmosphere in the countryside. Many tourists passing by, captivated by the beauty of the crane forest, stop to take pictures. And so, "Dong Tron" has become an integral part of and a source of pride for the people of Van Yen village.

There are hardly any storks around.

At this time in previous years, the Round Cave was bustling with activity. But today, we stood on the shore of Khe Du Lake for over two hours, looking towards the lake, and only saw a few flocks of egrets, each with about a few dozen birds. Mr. Thai Van Long, a fish farmer at Khe Du Lake, said: "The other day, the reporters from the district television station set up their cameras and waited all afternoon and evening, but not a single egret came to roost!"

When asked why the egrets were absent from the Round Cave, some villagers in Van Yen shared their frustration over the excessive hunting. On rainy days, the egrets' wings get wet, so they simply bring sacks to collect them and sell them. Each egret costs about 25,000 dong, and they earn over 500,000 dong a day. Worse still, due to their passion for hunting, many officials and civil servants also bring guns to hunt egrets. The villagers of Van Yen want to protect the egret population, but they are powerless to do so.

Regarding this issue, Mr. Le Dinh Loi, Director of Do Luong Forestry Company Limited, said: "The fact that the storks have been roosting here for many years is natural. We only try to protect and preserve the environmental landscape, and have not focused on investing in tourism services from here. The characteristic of storks is that they prefer to take shelter in quiet places, with trees above and water below, the most suitable being bamboo. However, every year around the 4th lunar month, the local authorities here release water from Khe Du and Khe Ho lakes for agricultural production. When the lakes dry up, the storks take flight to find other places." The company has hired a local resident to work with the Hoa Son commune police force to guard the storks with a salary of 350,000 VND/month. However, the hunting of storks remains uncontrolled.

Mr. Thai Dinh Huong, Chairman of the Hoa Son Commune People's Committee, explained that the locality's difficulty lies in not allowing the egret population to negatively impact agricultural production. The Khe Du and Khe Thoi reservoirs were built by the local authorities to ensure water supply for the rice fields. The commune has a water pumping station located at the Hiep Hoa sluice gate, drawing water from the Dao River, but its capacity is still low. However, more than 30 hectares of the commune's agricultural land are located at higher elevations and are entirely dependent on reservoir water. Upgrading the pumping station and constructing a water transfer station from the lowlands to the highlands is beyond the local government's budget. Since the egrets arrived, the local government has consistently strengthened protection efforts and strictly dealt with those who hunt them. As for creating a natural environment to attract the egrets, the commune lacks the resources to do so…

We need an ecotourism project.

Attracting the storks back to Van Yen is not difficult, as it is already a "fertile land," but it requires coordination between the local government and managers. It only requires upgrading the irrigation system and water pumping station to serve agricultural production instead of draining the lake, and planting more bamboo along the lake's edge. Recently, several businesses have come to explore and research the possibility of developing ecotourism combining the natural beauty of the vast pine hills, the mountain lake, and the Tron Cave. However, so far, no business has dared to invest. Perhaps the local government needs to have appropriate mechanisms and policies to exploit the potential advantages of ecotourism while protecting the stork population.

Nguyen Le (Contributor)