Villagers in Bago make watch-towers to protect paddy fields destroying elephants

Villagers from Bago Region have set up watch-towers this year to protect their paddy crops from destroying wild elephants. Elephants have been entering paddy fields from 16 November, said villagers.

“This year, the number of elephants invading the paddy fields has declined compared to last year. The elephants usually come to feed on paddy crops around midnight. Therefore, we have constructed watch-towers to drive them away. We will finish harvesting paddy by the end of this month,” said U Mya Maung from Milaunggone Village in the Kywepoke Village-tract.

“The officials set up electric fences around fields and conducted awareness training to prevent human-elephant conflicts this year. The government is aware that the number of wild elephants in Myanmar has declined. According to official statistics, Myanmar’s total wild elephant population stands at 1,000 at present. Many elephants are being killed in the Ayeyawady Region as well as in regions near the Bago Yoma. Authorities have asked villagers to inform Nay Pyi Taw directly if they see any elephant hunters,” said a member of a wildlife protection group.

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

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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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Raids reveal Myanmar poachers’ indiscriminate bloodthirst

A series of targeted raids by Forestry Department agents on Tuesday ended with the arrest of six poachers Mandalay, Ayeyawady, and Bago regions and the seizure of a vast array of wildlife products. The diversity of the haul offered a glimpse into the voracious bloodthirst of Myanmar poachers and their customers.

Among the seized items were elephant hides, antlers of numerous deer species, bison horns, turtle shells and flesh, porcupine quills, bear bones, claws, and paws, and skulls of a variety of wild animals.

“Due to the market demands of neighboring countries, there are many people storing and trading these [wildlife parts],” Ayeyawady Region Forestry Department director Khin Maung Myint, told the Myanmar Times. He explained that one facility that was raided in his jurisdiction was used for making decorative hangings, jewelry and accessories, and traditional medicines out of animal skins and other parts.

The six suspects have been charged under Myanmar’s Protection of Wildlife and Protected Areas Law, which carries a prison sentence of up to five years for the killing or wounding of a protected animal.


Research from the last year has showed a spike in elephant killings as demand for elephant skin has risen across the region. Whereas ecological damage from the ivory trade has been limited by regulations in China and by its specific targeting of elephants with tusks, elephant skin hunters are indiscriminate in their killings, and skin products, which often lose their resemblance to natural elephant skin after they are processed, are more difficult to detect.



Myanmar’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation reported last year that poachers in Myanmar kill one elephant every week. If the killing continues at the same rate, the country’s elephant population could be extinct within a few years.


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Hunters prey on wild elephants in Yoma

Elephant hunters are targetting the Rakhine Yoma elephant sanctuary, which is considered one of the last remaining safe havens for wild elephants in Myanmar.

Approximately 100 wild elephants inhabit the sanctuary, but this area is being threatened by brutal attacks on wild elephants nationwide, according to conservationists.


“This sanctuary is a refuge for the remaining wild elephants.” said U Aung Kyaw, wildlife trade coordinator of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

“In 2011 and 2012, it was a good place for wild elephants, but there were elephant killings on occasion in the sanctuary,” he added.


According to a WCS statement released on Monday, a hunter was arrested on April 2 for killing a wild elephant in the sanctuary.

Authorities are still hunting for three other people involved in the killing of the elephant, the statement said.

About 114.1 kilograms of elephant parts, such as dried trunk, skin and meat were recovered recently in the area, according to the Forest Department.

“It is a rare case in this sanctuary. And we can say it is the first time an elephant was killed in this area,” said U San Win, administrator of the sanctuary. “Four people were arrested, including a local resident.”

U San Win said there are 24 staff in the sanctuary and 17 of them regularly patrol the area.

“We have very few people and we can’t cover all of the area. If we had enough staff and we could cooperate with the police to stop wildlife hunting in the area,” he added.

The sanctuary is a very important haven for wild elephants and other rare species of wild animals but if they cannot be protected, they will face extinction, according to U San Win. The wildlife reserve, located in a remote area of the Rakhine Yoma range in southwest Myanmar. It comprises 39,332 square kilometres, is very difficult to access, and is one of the biggest elephant habitats.

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