Wild Elephants Destroy Home, Crops in Ngapudaw Township

PATHEIN — Two herds of hungry wild elephants destroyed a house and crops in a village in Irrawaddy Region’s Ngapudaw Township on Monday.

According to locals, each herd included at least five elephants. The herds arrived separately from the east and west of the Pathein-Mawtin Road in the township’s Dipayone Kwethit village on Monday evening.

“The two herds were only about 500 feet from each other. They seemed to be starving. They came close to the fences of our houses and ate bananas and other crops. Because they came so close to people, Forestry Police had to fire shots to scare them away,” said Tin Chaung village tract administrator U Tun Lay, who helped police drive the wild elephants away.

A house in Dipayone Kwethit was destroyed by elephants that had wandered into the backyard to eat crops. The elephants were not aggressive toward villagers, local residents said.

“The elephants approached the fences of our houses, but didn’t appear to be hostile. It seems they had been chased by a group of elephant poachers,” said U Tun Lay.

“When one household scared them away, they went to another house. If that house scared them off, they went to the next one. The villagers were too scared to sleep that night [on Monday]. They made noises and lit fires [to keep the elephants away from their houses],” he added.

The elephants were still in the woods near the village on Tuesday morning, he said.

An “elephant-scaring” team was on its way to the village on Tuesday, Khun Pyone Naing, head of Ngapudaw Township Forestry Department, told The Irrawaddy.

The team, formed in June this year and made up of non-governmental organization workers, Forestry Police offers and Myanma Timber Enterprise staff, is tasked with scaring away elephants from human settlements and protecting them from poachers. It conducts regular patrols in forests, and when necessary drives away wild elephants with the help of domesticated elephants.

“Such places are frequently visited by wild elephants. We will drive them back into the forest with the assistance of domesticated elephants,” Khun Pyone Naing said.

For the time being, Forestry and local police are providing security for the village.

According to local residents, wild elephants usually visit farms in search of food from the time of the paddy harvest in November until around May, just before the rainy season starts.

Elephants have seen their habitats shrink dramatically due illegal logging in recent decades, said Sai Zaw Oo, a supervisor at the Myanmar Elephant Lovers Association, which is based in Ngapudaw Township

“So, they come to human settlements to eat paddy, banana and other crops grown by humans. And this has led to human-elephant conflict” he said.

“At the same time, this has given elephant poachers the opportunity to hunt wild elephants that come and search for food,” he added.

Last year, four local villagers were killed in elephant-human conflicts that erupted after the animals started eating crops near Ngwe Saung Beach in the west of Pathein Township, according to the Ngwe Saung Beach police station.

On Nov. 30 Forestry Department personnel had to drive away a wild elephant after it destroyed a house and killed a pig in Kyaukphya village tract in the west of Pathein Township.

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Myanmar introduces elephant protection plan

Myanmar is stepping up efforts to protect its elephants with a new conservation project following a dramatic rise in poaching in recent years, officials said Thursday.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation (MONREC) has finalized an elephant conservation plan -- the first such scheme for Myanmar, which has the world’s second largest Asian elephant population after India.

“The Myanmar Elephant Conservation Action Plan is very important to support the long-term survival of Myanmar’s elephants,” said Environment Minister Ohn Win said in a statement.

The plan includes legislation against killing elephants and a proposal to establish a registry of wild and domesticated elephants. It outlines ten-year priorities to safeguard the animals, including enlisting public help in controlling poaching and the trade in elephants and their parts.

According to government statistics, 133 elephants have been lost in Myanmar over the last seven years, including 61 to poachers. Last year saw the loss of 25 elephants.

“The urgency now for elephant conservation action is due to increasing killing for the illegal trade in ivory and parts,” Ohn Win said.

Around 2,000 wild Asian elephants and 6,000 used in the timber industry are under increased threat from poaching for ivory, elephant skin and other parts, as well as the capture of elephants for the live trade, the U.S-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) said.

Simon Hedges, elephant coordinator with WCS, said the plan -- developed in collaboration with eight government departments and international conservation agencies -- is a significant achievement towards securing the future of Asian elephants in Myanmar.

“Habitat loss, poaching and human-elephant conflict are pressing threats to elephant conservation in Myanmar,” he said in a statement.

British non-profit EleAid group says poaching for ivory, meat and other parts is on a small scale in Myanmar. “However, poaching to capture elephant calves is known to be commonplace,” according to the organization’s website.

“The mother and often other members of the herd will fight to protect the calf and the hunters frequently resort to killing them. The calves are then smuggled in to Thailand for work in the tourist industry.”

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Over 4,700 domesticated elephants used in Myanmar for economic undertakings

 A total of 4,748 domesticated elephants in Myanmar are being used in timber extraction, heavy lifting as well as for riding at eco-tourism sites, official media reported on Wednesday.

However, about 72 wild elephants were killed by hunters from 2010 to 2017. Myanmar now has nearly 2,500 wild elephants in rainforests.

To protect wild elephants against hunters, Myanmar government has built wild elephant reserves, including those in Hukaung Valley, Alaungdaw Kathapa, Shwe U Daung, Myauk Zar Mayee, Rakhine and Yoma.

Myanmar has also signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to protect wild elephants, setting aside 9,205 square miles for elephant sanctuaries.

Both local and international non-governmental organizations are exerting efforts to expand the area of land for wildlife reserves in the country.

At present, a local NGO and an elephant conservation organization from Australia are planning to establish an elephant reserve in the country.

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Rangoon’s Oldest Elephant Retires

RANGOON — After five decades entertaining visitors at the Rangoon Zoo shaking her hips to the beat in party outfits, the city zoo’s oldest elephant has been retired, said a zoo official.

The beloved 64-year-old Mo Mo was retired on her last birthday in October 2016; however, there was no official announcement from the zoo, and an official told media about her retirement at the zoo’s 111th-anniversary celebration from January 21-25.

Mo Mo is still being kept under the care of the Rangoon Zoo, said Ko Myo Kyaw Thu, the administrative manager of the Htoo Foundation’s zoo and garden business unit responsible for the management of the zoo on Tuesday.

She will be kept at the zoo until her last breath along with eight fellow friends—five females and three males, he added. Even though her keepers and mahouts have retired one after another, she remains healthy.

Born in 1953 and donated to the zoo by U Khoon Sandah from Karenni State’s Loikaw in 1961, Mo Mo has been so popular among the public—especially children—that she became an icon of the Rangoon Zoo and appeared in television commercials promoting the site.

Mo Mo also participated in parades held to mark the arrival of a Buddha tooth relic from China during the 1990s. The Rangoon Zoo began celebrating her birthdays annually when she turned 60.

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