The Elephant In The Room

[bust]

Elephants are Thailand's national animal but the wandering giants are now a deadly problem

With Thailand's elephant population expanding in recent years, there have been more human deaths in villages.(Supplied: Uthan Chayaphat)

Prasong Promchart vividly remembers the day her sister-in-law, Tang, was chased and killed by an elephant in Thailand.

The two women were out picking vegetables to make chicken soup on a farm in Prachinburi province, in the country's east, when Tang stumbled upon the wandering giant.

Prasong can still recall seeing her sister-in-law being followed closely by the wild elephant as she fled.

"She ran away and then it was so quiet, there was not a single sound. It was silent," Prasong told the ABC.

She did not see what happened but it was later confirmed Tang had been trampled to death by the elephant.

A police officer discovered the woman's ribs were broken.

Moments after Tang was attacked, the beast turned to Prasong.

"It was so quiet, the elephant just stood there. I stood still and the elephant walked towards me, so I knelt down," Prasong said.

"I did a Wai [prayer hands] and said 'please spare me, please spare me father.'"

She said the elephant was close enough that he "could have reached me and hurt me".

 

"I was scared he would hurt me but he did not," she said.

"After he finally left, I walked over to [Tang], hugged her and shook her body but she didn't respond."

Thailand's national animal has become a national problem, as the country deals with an increasing number of deadly encounters between elephants and humans.

Once on the brink of extinction, elephant numbers have now rebounded.

They increased from an estimated 3,000 in 2018 to more than 4,400 in March 2023, according to the latest survey.

But the expansion in numbers has also resulted in more human deaths.

In the same period, 137 people were killed by elephants across Thailand. The Department of National Parks said 12 people have already been killed by elephants this year.

Prasong is still haunted by the memory of what happened to her sister-in-law and tries to avoid news articles or TV shows about elephants.

The animal that killed Trang was captured and taken back on a truck to the national park a month after the attack.

But Prasong hasn't set foot on a farm since the encounter and wants the government to do more to protect people living near elephants.

"I wish our village could live in peace and comfort. I don't want elephants to come around," she said.

How elephants became a deadly problem

In the eastern provinces, like Prachinburi, where Tang was killed, the elephant population is growing at a rate of about 8 per cent per year.

Phadet Laithong, director of the Wildlife Conservation Office of the Department of National Parks, said elephants were increasingly venturing outside of conservation areas and into villages and farms.

 

Elephants are increasingly venturing outside of conservation areas and into villages and farms.(Supplied: Uthan Chayaphat)

"So we must do everything to improve the ecosystem to attract wild elephants to stay inside the forest," he told the ABC.

"Wild elephants are the same as other living animals … They live with instinct. Where there is food, they will go there, especially the food they like."

The food these enormous animals like is exactly the kind of crops farmed in the eastern forest zone – sugar cane, jackfruit and papaya.

"They like it more that the grass, vines and wood inside the forest," he said.

Phadet said one possible explanation for the elephants' movements into surrounding farmland was the lack of water sources, so "they keep walking" until they find it.

"Once they reached outside the conservation forest, they found agriculture crops, water and small bushes for hiding from danger," he said.

"When there are three complete elements they need, they learn how to live in that area and explore all around it."

In early December, a herd of more than 130 elephants wrought havoc on a village in Prachinburi, with farmers estimating the damage to their crops at about 10 million baht ($425,000).

Sunthorn Komkai, a local cane farmer, had crops that were damaged during the rampage and said he was angry at the government for failing to do more.

He was also still reeling from the death of his relative, Tang, who was killed on his property.

 

Tang died after an elephant stumbled into the garden where she was picking food for dinner.(ABC News: Lauren Day)

"It was traumatic and I do not want this to happen to anyone else," he said.

"It was a devastating loss and no-one can understand the wild elephant problem if they do not face it themselves."

Sunthorn said he was upset that more can't be done to stop people from dying.

"I'm not angry with the wild elephant but I am angry with the weak government," he said.

"Even when people die in pain and crops are damaged, they say they can't do much and we must follow the regulations. So we are angry that we can't do anything."

The volunteer group tracking down a roaming herd

Sunthorn, who was a candidate in last year's Thai election for the Move Forward Party, now spends most nights with a group of volunteers.

 

Sunthorn Komkai says he is angry that they can't do anything about the attacks from elephants.(ABC News: Lauren Day)

They try to track down wandering elephants that have ventured out of the forest and into farmland in order to push them back towards the national park.

The small teams inspect the fence lines designed to keep the giant animals out — though they stand small chance of holding them back.

They also use infrared drones to detect the elephants from the air before trying to shepherd them back to the forest with flares and flashlights.

The dangerous job had been largely left to locals, Sunthorn said, because the government had not allocated enough money to fix the problem.

"The Department of National Parks' 'pushing team' should have their own drone, they should get a better salary and there should be bigger teams because there aren't enough compared to number of elephants," he said.

"Wild elephants are not a natural disaster. Wild elephants are a mistake of the state, because they could not manage this problem.

"Elephants belong to the nation, the caretaker is the government. The mismanagement occurred by government so they should pay the price."

 

Sunthorn Komkai joins National Park officers to examine a fence designed to keep elephants away from crops.(ABC News: Lauren Day)

Padej Laitong from the Department of National Parks agreed they were under-resourced to deal with the escalating issue.

"We must admit that we have a very small budget to support us," he said.

"I understand the government has so many missions and responsibilities to take care of. But we would like to get more budget to solve the problem.

"The urgent and the most important thing is to increase the amount and efficiency of the push-back team and network. And to let them know that we will not abandon them.

"The other important thing is healing and compensation for people. We are trying to set up the regulations and request more money from the government."

The Thai government did not answer questions put to them by the ABC.

Solutions to human-elephant conflict

The government has recently set up a committee to tackle the problem of human-elephant conflict.

One solution being considered was a birth control vaccine currently being researched, which could be administered from the air.

 

Despite warnings about the dangers posed by elephants, villagers can still be caught by surprise by the animals.(ABC News: Lauren Day)

"We are studying how it can be shot with a drone from a distance into the female elephants, and it would then work for seven years," Mr Laitong said.

"It is not expensive but quite a difficult method, which we need to study more and develop."

Sunthorn said the current situation was unsustainable and dangerous, not only for people but the elephants as well.

"The number of elephants being injured or killed is increasing every year too," he said.

"It is very dangerous for elephants to live outside the forest as we don't know what will happen to them.

"I think elephants should live in their space and human lives in their space. They can live together but separately."

Sunthorn was worried about future interactions between elephants and humans and the likelihood it may result in more tragedy.

"I can only pray that this year there will be no death in our community," he said.

But days after speaking with the ABC, Sunthorn's greatest fears were realised when a 42-year-old man was killed in a sugarcane farm not far from his own.

His body was cremated at a monastery where wild elephants had previously destroyed a pagoda containing a large number of ashes.

 

Thailand's government is grappling with an increasing number of deadly encounters between elephants and humans.(Supplied: Uthan Chayaphat)

[Mekong]

The arrogance of man, Elephants evolved well before apes did, we are on their territory not the other way around 

[Coss]

"..and small bushes for hiding from danger"

 

An Elephant hiding behind a small bush:

 

[bust]

6 hours ago, Mekong said:

The arrogance of man, Elephants evolved well before apes did, we are on their territory not the other way around 

Didn't really read the article as being arrogant or stating man was more important than elephants. Just saw it as an observation of a problem with co-existence.

[Mekong]

My comments weren’t aime d at this story specifically, just my own thoughts on so called co existence on human terms

So man’s idea of coexistence is to take over land on which the Elephants used to roam for farming and ban the Elephants to ,reserves designated by man.

Man deciding where animals which were here millions of years before man existed where they can and cannot live is arrogance in my book. Didn’t Australians used to do the same with Aborigines in he past with  reserves and stations?

 

[bust]

25 minutes ago, Mekong said:

Didn’t Australians used to do the same with Aborigines in he past with  reserves and stations?

In the past! They still do and it's a complete nightmare. Not sure if you have heard but it's out of control at the moment especially in norther and central Oz.

There is currently a youth crime epidemic being attributed to a particular demographic.

[buffalo_bill]

Mr Mekong , very well . They have been there a million years ago or whatever . Over a couple of years wolves have been invited to invade the Federal Republic ( of Germany ) and in Northern Italy they recently counted about 100 brown or black or yellow bears , can´t remember . One of them killed a man for unknown reason. The wolves enjoy killing cattle once they find them, thinking they arrived in a paradise of finding decent food. Without men this would principally be a better place, subjects like Trump or Putin prove my view.

[Mekong]

Putin invades Ukraine, Ukrainians kill Russians, Ukraine Good Russia Bad

Italians Invade Bear Territory, Bears kill Italians, Bears Bad Italians Good

And the difference is, Humans are supposed to be the most intelligent members of the animal kingdom

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Dolphins are the second most intelligent creatures on earth — before humans and after mice, which spend their time running complex lab experiments on scientists.

One of the best lines ever

[Mekong]

HHGTTG 

As good as it was

‘Nobody makes jokes in base 13 anymore “was an even better  quote IMHO