Villagers in sanctuary learn to live with, protect wild elephants

On his way to the field, U Pyone Cho unexpectedly met a wild elephant but was too surprised to do anything.

Before he knew it, the beast had picked him up with its trunk, and he thought it was the end for him. But he held on to the trunk with all the strength he could muster and the wild elephant threw him into a bush quite far away. Desperate to ward off the elephant, he took out some firecrackers he had with him and lit them.

“Both of us ran away from each other,” U Pyone Cho recalled, laughing, and he only suffered a sprained back from the encounter.

U Pyone Cho lives in Kun Thi Myaung village in Taikkyi township, Yangon Region. The village – a drive of over three hours from Yangon city – is near Bago Yoma Sanctuary, which is home to wild elephants.

With about 100 houses, the peaceful and quiet village on the way to Myaing Hay Wun Elephant Camp is surrounded by dragon fruit, sugar cane and mango orchards.

The village is a hotspot of human-elephant conflict, and villagers admit they are always worried about the possibility of encountering the jungle giants while working in their fields or heading home.

Residents said wild elephants usually enter the village at night to eat in the paddy fields. Sometimes, they forage for food at villagers houses.

“We just watch them when they get into the sugar-cane because we dare not drive them out. Our farm hut has a watchtower on top of a tree where we have to sleep all night,” said farmer U Thein Aung.

Five years ago, a villager was killed by a wild elephant when he tried to confront it and drive it away, according to U Thein Zaw, another villager.

Years of elephant incursions have made the villagers careful. Usually when elephants enter their fields, they do not confront them but frighten them by setting off firecrackers, which send the beasts scampering back into the jungle.

Villagers usually carry firecrackers when they venture into the forest in case they encounter wild elephants.

The Emergency Elephant Response Unit (EERU) at the elephant camp also helps in preventing human-elephant conflict as well as poaching by installing radio collars around the elephants’ necks to track them.

The World Wildlife Fund-Myanmar helps the unit with patrols and conservation work. Once an elephant is monitored venturing outside the sanctuary, a team from the unit is dispatched to drive the elephants back to the protected area.

Near Bago Yoma, there are about 10 villages, including Kun Thi Myaung, where human-elephant conflicts occur, said U Maung Maung Chay, leader of the unit.

The unit protects the villagers and keeps a close watch on the movement of the elephants. They also protect the beasts from poachers.

“We follow the elephants and take care of them as if the elephants belonged to us. When we find suspected poachers, we contact the authorities and we keep monitoring. The hunters do not dare to come near the elephants. The village administrators phone us if the wild elephants enter a village. If they are in a normal mood, we go there and turn them away by setting off firecrackers or shouting. If the elephants do not run away, we call in the kumkis (decoy elephants) of the EERU,” he said.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Win Tun of the forest security force said they conduct daily patrols to prevent human-elephant conflicts and to stop poachers.

“In the sanctuary, humans are invading the habitat of the elephants, chopping down trees and planting crops. This leads to less grazing area for the elephants, so they go into the fields of the villagers,” said U Win Tun.

The officer added that elephants also enter villages to escape poachers who hunt them in the forest.

Cooperation between the villagers near Bago Yoma, law enforcement and conservationists has increased recently, resulting in fewer elephant killings.

EERU patrols have started in the regions and states of Ayeyarwady, Bago, Sagaing, Magwe, Mandalay, Rakhine, and Nay Pyi Taw.

“The police, Forestry [Department], timber businesses, local government officials and village groups have joined hands to stop the poaching of elephants,” said U Zaw Min Oo, manager of the Myanma Timber Enterprise.

While locals are afraid of the elephants, they don’t want the beasts to go extinct, villager U Maung Maung Chay said, adding that villagers have learned to avoid elephants.

He cited the example of one stubborn wild elephant that always intrudes into villages. The villagers fondly call it “Jeep Car” because it moves very fast.

“He doesn’t stay in the forest much. He lives near the village. He has been tranquilised and released in Myauksamari Sanctuary twice, but he always returns here,” said U Maung Maung Chay.

Villagers urged the government and conservationists to help them set up electric fences around their fields so elephants do not destroy their crops.

“If we can grow crops in protected fields,” U Thein Aung said, “people will have food and will help protect the elephants from poachers.”

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