PRACHUAP KHIRI KHAN - The manager of a farm close to the Kaeng Krachan National Park has confessed to killing three wild elephants which were found dead in a district of Hua Hin on Wednesday.
INN reported the man, whose name has not been released, reportedly confessed to electrocuting the elephants while being questioned at Ban Nong Plub police station in Hua Hin district late on Wednesday night.
His motive is not known yet as police are still interrogating him.
The elephants were found lying alongside each other. They were known to roam near the Asom Burapa meditation centre in Ban Chaloemkiat Pattana village in Huai Sat Yai sub-district.
The dead elephants were a male aged about 10 years with 30-centimetre-long tusks, a female 6-7 years old, and a female juvenile aged 3-4 years.
They were found in a grass plantation surrounded by rubber trees and other kinds of farmland.
Villagers assumed they were a family. Their bodies laid near a large pond and there were many elephant footprints.
The group of the elephants had been seen feeding nearby on Tuesday and they are assumed to have died that night.
Kamol Nualyai, chief of the Kaeng Krachan National Park, said later Wednesday that the elephants were found dead on private property. They were members of a herd of about 15.
Forest rangers often saw the herd and the dead pachyderms were spotted feeding near the boundary of the national park on Tuesday morning, he said.
As there were no wounds on the dead elephants and they appeared to have bled from their eyes and mouths, the park chief initially assumed that they had eaten pesticides and died before they reached the pond to drink and relieve the pain.
Autopsies will be conducted to find the cause of death, Mr Kamol said.