Elephant News Burma

Elephants attack cyclone-hit areas

2009-05-08T01:57:00.000Z

The Associated Press
March 23, 2009
YANGON, Myanmar: Local media says wild elephants that lost their habitats in last year's devastating cyclone are destroying farm lands and attacking villagers as they forage for food.

The privately owned Weekly Eleven journal said Monday that wild elephants lost a swath of their habitat as Cyclone Nargis destroyed forests of the Rakhine mountain range in the southern tip of the Irrawaddy River delta.

The journal did not say whether villagers had been killed or injured in the attacks or if authorities were taking any preventive measures.

The area was the first hit by the cyclone on May 2, which left nearly 140,000 people dead or missing in the delta and other areas.

International and domestic operations to help survivors continue.

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Illegal elephant trade flourishes in Burma: TRAFFIC

2009-01-17T01:13:00.000Z

Salai Pi Pi, Mizzina
12 December 2008

New Delhi (Mizzima) – With at least 250 elephants and ivory being smuggled out of Burma in a decade, the Southeast Asian nation faces a sharp come down in its pachyderm population, a new report reveals.

The report, by the wildlife trade monitoring network, TRAFFIC, said being the centre of an illegal trade for elephants and ivory, Burma is losing out on precious animals to poachers and is subject to illegal trade, where elephants are sold mainly to neighbouring countries for 'Elephant Trekking'.

Chris R. Shepherd, TRAFFIC's Southeast Asia Senior Program Officer, said, "The elephant population in Myanmar [Burma] is declining due to poaching and illegal cross border trade."

Shepherd citing traders involved in the illegal trade, said most elephants are smuggled out to neighbouring Thailand, to be used in trekking in the tourism industry and for entertainment.

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Wildlife keepers warn against elephants tendency to move sanctuary

2008-10-02T15:26:00.001Z

Xinhua
September 26, 2008

YANGON -- Wildlife keepers in Myanmar have warned against tendency of move of sanctuary of wild elephants from deep mountain range in western Rakhine state to agricultural field as elephant feed is running short there this year, the local Biweekly Eleven News reported Friday.

Such wild elephants are being found shifting from the May Yu mountain range bordering Bangladesh to agricultural farms with crop plantations of local farmers and destroying the plantations for the sake of feed, the report said, calling on the farmers to take measures to prevent the crop plantations from being spoiled out of the wildlife's move.

The report attributed the tendency of the elephants to the extinction of bamboo plantation in the Rakhine Yoma natural bamboo forest during this year which the elephants depend on for their feed.

Meanwhile, Myanmar has taken measures for elephant conservation by restricting the catching of such animal in the country's Bago Yoma mountain range in the central part where most of the elephants take sanctuary, other local report said.

In order to prevent elephant from extinction in the country, the Myanmar forestry authorities allowed catching of the wild elephants in the mountain range's Hlegu area only once in three years, prescribing the ratio of the elephants caught to be handed over to the authorities, according to the report.

Similarly, in the wake of tiger extinction threat, Myanmar wildlife police and forest rangers have also planned to step up combating wildlife trade and crimes in the tiger reserve and special training programs have been introduced jointly by the Myanmar forest ministry and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) .

With only 150 tigers reportedly remained alive in Myanmar's tiger reserve, tiger conservation is being undertaken in Hukaung Valley, the geographical condition of which creates a suitable place for survival of the tigers.

The Hukuang Tiger Reserve in Myanmar's northernmost Kachin state, which was established in 2004, covers an area of about 22, 000 square kilometers, and is claimed the largest of its kind in the world.

Burma Takes Measures for Wildlife Conservation

2008-09-27T03:49:00.000Z

Xinhua (New China News Agency)
23 September 2008

Yangon [Rangoon], Sept. 23 (Xinhua) - Myanmar [Burma] has taken measures for wildlife conservation by restricting the catching of elephant in the country's Bago Yoma mountain range where most of the animal take sanctuary, the local Weekly Eleven journal reported Tuesday.

In order to prevent elephant from extinction in the country, the Myanmar forestry authorities allowed catching of the wild elephants in the mountain range's Hlegu area only once in three years, prescribing the ratio of the elephants caught to bhanded over to the authorities, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the authorities also called on the country's people to participate in the task for conservation of rare birds and wildlife to stabilize the ecosystem which faces collapse as in the world, singling out that there are only nine endangered species out of 144 in the world can be found in Myanmar.

Golden deer, one of the nine species in existence in Myanmar, are being protected in Chatthin Sanctuary in northwestern Sagaing division, the authorities said, adding that "though three kinds of species of the golden deer are found in South East Asia, there are now only Myanmar golden deer left".

Noting that the population of tigers worldwide gradually declines with tiger species being available in 13 countries only, the authorities said Myanmar is cooperating with seven other Asian nations in an effort to establish a tiger protection corridor which extends as 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometres) for endangered ones.

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Myanmar's wild elephants helping cut down their forest habitat

2008-02-26T02:49:00.000Z

Agence France Presse

February 18, 2008

YANGON (AFP) — Elephants in Myanmar have long been invaluable labourers in the country's timber industry, nimbly finding their way through forests and dragging heavy fallen trees to rivers for shipping.

But as Myanmar's ruling junta expands logging in the country's teak forests, more wild elephants are being captured and trained for clear-cutting operations that destroy the very habitats in which they roamed freely, activists and industry insiders say.

"On account of the loss and fragmentation of their habitats, the size of the wild elephant population has declined," said Uga, chairman of local environmental group Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association.

"To obtain elephant power for logging, wild elephants are being captured and recruited," said Uga, who uses only one name.

Employing elephants is normally more environmentally friendly than using heavy machinery, which requires roads cut into forests which cause more damage than elephants would.

About 4,500 elephants are believed to be working in the logging industry, including 2,500 owned by the state-run Myanmar Timber Enterprise (MTE), Uga said.

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Villagers Killed by Elephants in Pegu Division

2007-03-11T08:14:00.000Z

Villagers Killed by Elephants in Pegu Division

Shah Paung, Irrawaddy News

March 07, 2007

Villagers living near the Pegu Mountains in central Burma have complained that an increasing number of elephants moving through their village has left several people dead, rice and bean crops destroyed, and villagers with no recourse to justice.

Local residents say that earlier this week, a group of elephants came into Thayetgone village in Pegu Division and trampled a farmer. It’s not the first time the elephants have caused trouble in the area.

“These elephants have eaten or destroyed paddy and killed our villagers,” one local resident told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday. “People have to be very cautious because of them, especially when they are traveling in the village at night.”

The deaths and destruction are thought to be primarily the work of elephants from a nearby government forest reserve in the Pegu Mountains, and could have arrived at the village by following the course of the Pegu River, which originates near the reserve.

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Report: Mining pollutes tiger reserve

2007-01-11T02:07:00.000Z

Michael Casey, Seattle Post Intelligencer
January 10, 2007
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Myanmar's military junta is allowing gold mines to pollute the world's largest wild tiger reserve and has promoted development that is destroying ethnic Kachin communities, a report released Wednesday alleged.
The Kachin Development Networking Group, a coalition of NGOs, also accused the government of doubling its military presence in the Hukaung Valley in northwestern Myanmar. The government signed a peace pact with the separatist Kachin Independence Organization in 1994.
As part of that expansion, the military has confiscated a third of the farmland and scores of public buildings in and around the main town of Danai, the group said.
"Local residents had high hopes that peace would foster economic development and improve living conditions," the report said. "However, under the junta's increased control, the rich resources of the (Hukaung) valley have turned out to be a curse."

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Elephants threatened by landmines, says vet

2006-10-13T01:07:00.000Z

Elephants threatened by landmines, says vet
SOMSAK SUKSAI
Bangkok Post
October 15, 2005 Lampang

More than 100 elephants hauling logs in Burma run the risk of losing their lives to landmines.

Veterinarian Preecha Puangkham, director of the medical section at Lampang's Elephant Hospital, said the number of elephants killed or maimed by landmines in the border area has increased, as hauling logs yields large incomes for the owners of the animals and their handlers, or mahouts. More than 100 elephants from Thailand have been taken to forest-rich Burma to haul logs. `

`Now, how can we help solve the problems faced by more than 100 elephants at risk of landmines in Burma? And how can we prevent people from taking elephants to work in that country? Cooperation from all sides, particularly elephant owners, is needed. They should pay more attention to the safety of the pachyderms than to their wages,'' said Dr Preecha. He raised the issue after two young female elephants, aged six and two years, were severely injured after stepping on a landmine in Burma. The explosion on Oct 5 mutilated six-year-old Mojay's right hind leg and Motoo's left front leg.

The animals were following their mother to haul logs in the Burmese forest opposite Tak's Tha Song Yang district when they stumbled on the landmine. The two pachyderms are now being treated at the Elephant Hospital. Dr Preecha said Motoo's injuries were worrying and she required intensive care. Mojay suffered wounds to her hind leg like Motala, another landmine victim, who was admitted to the hospital six years ago. After Mojay's wounds have healed, she might be fitted with an artificial leg, said Dr Preecha. Pasupo Wiangbanlue of Tak's Tha Song Yang district, the owner of the two injured elephants, said high wages drew him to take his elephants to work in Burma.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/15Oct2005_news14.php