A wild elephant has been on a rampage through several villages in the west of Pathein Township in Irrawaddy Region as of Tuesday, and locals are afraid.
“That elephant is really wild and not afraid of humans. It stamped a pig to death in Kyun Kalay village and also destroyed a house in Ywathit village. We locals are scared that it could hurt us,” U Hla Htay, the administrator of Kyaukphya village tract, told The Irrawaddy.
Forestry police and personnel of the Pathein Township Forestry Department arrived in the village tract on Friday after locals sought help. The forestry department brought four tamed elephants to help drive it back to the forest.
Wild elephants visit farms for food usually from the paddy harvest in November to around May before the rainy season starts, according to locals.
“As people cut down trees excessively, it causes deforestation, and elephants are devoid of foods. They are losing their habitats. So, they come to human settlements to eat paddy, banana and other crops grown by the people, resulting in human-elephant conflict,” said Sai Zaw Oo, a supervisor of the Myanmar Elephant Lovers Association, a local community-based organization based in Ngapudaw Township.
“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, a herd of wild elephants came and ate crops grown by locals around Ngwe Saung Beach in the west of Pathein Township, and four local villagers were killed in resultant human-elephant conflicts, according to the Ngwe Saung Beach police station.
In June this year, non-governmental organizations, forestry police and Myanma Timber Enterprise formed a team tasked with scaring away elephants from human settlements and preventing them from being hunted by poachers. The team carries out regular patrols across the forests with tamed elephants.
According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Conservation, 18 wild elephants were poached in Myanmar in 2016 whereas about 30 elephants have been hunted as of Aug. 31 this year.
The elephant population of the country is now estimated to be between 1,400 and 2,000—a significant decrease from about 10,000 in the 1940s, according to the Forestry Department.
Please credit and share this article with others using this link:https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/locals-seek-police-assistance-deter-rampaging-elephant.html
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Showing posts with label elephant herds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label elephant herds. Show all posts
Monday, January 08, 2018
Friday, December 22, 2017
Locals Seek Police Assistance to Deter Rampaging Elephant
PATHEIN — A wild elephant has been on a rampage through several villages in the west of Pathein Township in Irrawaddy Region as of Tuesday, and locals are afraid.
“That elephant is really wild and not afraid of humans. It stamped a pig to death in Kyun Kalay village and also destroyed a house in Ywathit village. We locals are scared that it could hurt us,” U Hla Htay, the administrator of Kyaukphya village tract, told The Irrawaddy.
Forestry police and personnel of the Pathein Township Forestry Department arrived in the village tract on Friday after locals sought help. The forestry department brought four tamed elephants to help drive it back to the forest.
Wild elephants visit farms for food usually from the paddy harvest in November to around May before the rainy season starts, according to locals.
“As people cut down trees excessively, it causes deforestation, and elephants are devoid of foods. They are losing their habitats. So, they come to human settlements to eat paddy, banana and other crops grown by the people, resulting in human-elephant conflict,” said Sai Zaw Oo, a supervisor of the Myanmar Elephant Lovers Association, a local community-based organization based in Ngapudaw Township.
“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, a herd of wild elephants came and ate crops grown by locals around Ngwe Saung Beach in the west of Pathein Township, and four local villagers were killed in resultant human-elephant conflicts, according to the Ngwe Saung Beach police station.
In June this year, non-governmental organizations, forestry police and Myanma Timber Enterprise formed a team tasked with scaring away elephants from human settlements and preventing them from being hunted by poachers. The team carries out regular patrols across the forests with tamed elephants.
According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Conservation, 18 wild elephants were poached in Myanmar in 2016 whereas about 30 elephants have been hunted as of Aug. 31 this year.
The elephant population of the country is now estimated to be between 1,400 and 2,000—a significant decrease from about 10,000 in the 1940s, according to the Forestry Department.
Please credit and share this article with others using this link:https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/locals-seek-police-assistance-deter-rampaging-elephant.html
“That elephant is really wild and not afraid of humans. It stamped a pig to death in Kyun Kalay village and also destroyed a house in Ywathit village. We locals are scared that it could hurt us,” U Hla Htay, the administrator of Kyaukphya village tract, told The Irrawaddy.
Forestry police and personnel of the Pathein Township Forestry Department arrived in the village tract on Friday after locals sought help. The forestry department brought four tamed elephants to help drive it back to the forest.
Wild elephants visit farms for food usually from the paddy harvest in November to around May before the rainy season starts, according to locals.
“As people cut down trees excessively, it causes deforestation, and elephants are devoid of foods. They are losing their habitats. So, they come to human settlements to eat paddy, banana and other crops grown by the people, resulting in human-elephant conflict,” said Sai Zaw Oo, a supervisor of the Myanmar Elephant Lovers Association, a local community-based organization based in Ngapudaw Township.
“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, a herd of wild elephants came and ate crops grown by locals around Ngwe Saung Beach in the west of Pathein Township, and four local villagers were killed in resultant human-elephant conflicts, according to the Ngwe Saung Beach police station.
In June this year, non-governmental organizations, forestry police and Myanma Timber Enterprise formed a team tasked with scaring away elephants from human settlements and preventing them from being hunted by poachers. The team carries out regular patrols across the forests with tamed elephants.
According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Conservation, 18 wild elephants were poached in Myanmar in 2016 whereas about 30 elephants have been hunted as of Aug. 31 this year.
The elephant population of the country is now estimated to be between 1,400 and 2,000—a significant decrease from about 10,000 in the 1940s, according to the Forestry Department.
Please credit and share this article with others using this link:https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/locals-seek-police-assistance-deter-rampaging-elephant.html
Thursday, December 14, 2017
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.
Please credit and share this article with others using this link:https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/wild-elephants-destroy-home-crops-ngapudaw-township.html
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.
Please credit and share this article with others using this link:https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/wild-elephants-destroy-home-crops-ngapudaw-township.html
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