In the early morning of July 4 this year, in the village of Chalermkiatpattana, in the Hua Hin district of Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand, a resident, Natthakan Charoendong, heard noises from outside the house. , so he went to the yard to check and found that an elephant was eating cat food in his house. After eating, the elephant left calmly, as if it was nothing.
This is not the first time the elephant has visited the village. "I know this elephant, I saw it in the news reports. I think it must be very hungry before it goes to the village for food again," Natakan said.
One night about a week ago, Ratchadawan Puengprasoppon, a resident of the same village, was woken up by a loud noise. He walked to the kitchen and saw that an elephant broke through the wall of the kitchen and stuck its head inside the house. Open the cabinet with the trunk, and sweep all the kitchen utensils to the ground.
The male elephant, named Boonchuay, lives in Thailand's Kaeng Krachan National Park. Park rangers noted that it often entered nearby villages, especially local markets, because it was attracted to the smell of food.
The Asian Elephant, also known as the Indian Elephant or Asian Elephant, is listed as Endangered Species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). They are found in thirteen countries including India, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Elephants have great religious and cultural significance in South and Southeast Asia. In Hinduism, Ganesha, the god of wisdom, is an elephant-headed human deity, and Indra, the head of the gods, rides a three-headed elephant. In the Buddhist cultural circle, it is said that Sakyamuni's mother was conceived because a white elephant fell into a dream. Therefore, Asian elephants are highly respected in Buddhist countries such as Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Sri Lanka.
However, as the population grew, forests were cleared for development, severely affecting the habitat of this species. Elephants had to enter dwellings for food, and the conflict between humans and elephants intensified. Between 2012 and 2018, 45 people died from elephants in Thailand. In April, a 55-year-old Thai was trampled to death by an elephant while feeding it.
In India, elephant habitat is seriously threatened, and the situation of Indian elephants is getting more and more difficult. About 80 to 100 elephants die every year due to human activities, such as eating poison baits placed by people, electrified fences electrocuted or hit by trains; 500 people also died in elephant accidents.
There are currently about 30 elephant sanctuaries in India, with about 30,000 elephants, but many elephants live outside the sanctuaries. Krithi Karanth, director of the Centre for Wildlife Studies in Bangalore, said: "One of the biggest challenges in India right now is that wildlife uses less than 5% of the land. And there are millions more who live in protected areas or surrounding areas.”
An adult elephant is about 3 meters tall and weighs 4,500 kilograms. It can eat about 150 kilograms of food every day, including grass, leaves and bark. Elephants occasionally break into fields to forage, and farmers are sometimes accidentally killed while driving them to protect their crops. Callans said that a lot of the time accidents happen by accident. People turn on lights or use sounds to drive away, but when the elephants get used to it, these methods no longer work.
At a landfill in Ampara in eastern Sri Lanka, a group of wild elephants from a neighboring nature reserve has also entered the garbage feed in recent years.
Sandeep Kumar Tiwari, an Asian elephant expert, said one of the most effective ways to reduce human-elephant conflict is to protect forests and ecological corridors for elephant migration. Because forests connect elephant habitats, protecting forests means elephants no longer have to intrude on farmland.
"This creature has a deep ancestral and cultural connection to people," said conservation scientist Callanth. "I hope everyone will do more because of this connection."