A gardener at a meditation centre has confessed to causing the deaths of three wild elephants with his homemade electric fence in Hua Hin district of Prachuap Khiri Khan province on Wednesday.
Pol Col Boontham Wannarat, deputy police commander of Prachuap Khiri Khan, said on Thursday that police armed with an arrest warrant from Hua Hin court apprehended Sompong Yaphakdee, 48, a gardener at the Asom Burapa meditation centre on Wednesday night for questioning.
The man initially denied being responsible for the elephants' deaths, but police found electrical wire and other parts of a fence, and had witnesses, Pol Col Boontham said.
Prachuap Khiri Khan governor Veera Sriwattanatrakul said later the man finally confessed to the crime. He said the deaths of three wild elephants at the same time was a big problem for the province, and in future the use of electric fences would have to be approved.
Hua Hin district chief Sutthipong Khlai-udom said the current flowing through electric fences to keep wild animals away from crops had to be reduced with a transformer to prevent killing them.
Mr Sompong, the gardener, later said during a reenactment that he had put up the electric fence to prevent elephants from drinking from the pond at the meditation centre.
The three elephants were found dead together near the pond in the compound of the meditation centre in Ban Chaloemkiat Pattana village of Huai Sat Yai sub-district, about two kilometres from Kaeng Krachan National Park.
Workers begin to bury the dead elephants in Hua Hin on Thursday. (Photo by Chaiwat Satyaem)
There was a male aged about 10 years with 30 centimetre tusks, a female 6-7 years old, and a female juvenile aged 3-4 years.
There are rubber plantations and other farms in the area, and their herd, comprising about 15 elephants, was often seen feeding in the vicinity.
National park officials who filed a complaint about the death with local police believed the wild elephants died unnaturally.
There were no wounds on the animals and they appeared to have bled from their eyes and mouths. Officials earlier found fence wire, poles and ropes hidden at locations near the death scene.
Veterinarians of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation collected samples from the dead animals for tests to confirm the cause of death. The results were expected in two weeks.