SURAT THANI - A herd of wild elephants, driven by drought and lack of food in the forest, invaded an oil palm plantation in Kanchanadit district overnight, uprooting trees and eating the young nuts.
The jumbos' raid have dashed the hopes of plantation owner Charnnarong Sammuang of Kong Chang village in tambon Paron, who had recently switched from growing rubber to oil palm trees.
He found more than four rai of his trees had been uprooted when he arrived to work at his plantation on Thursday morning.
Mr Charnnarong said he had switched to growing oil palm on about 27 rai of land after the price of rubber fell through the floor. He had planted high-grade oil palm seedlings in the hope of getting high yields.
His trees were eight months old, and many of them had been destroyed by the pillaging elephants.
At least eight wild elephants had raided his planation, he said. Nearby residents also feared their plantations would be invaded.
Jarin Nutpheut, deputy chairman of Pha Ron tambon administration organisation, said the number of elephants coming out of the forest to raid farms was higher than previous years.
Local residents and their leaders were on full alert, ready to try and prevent the hungry beasts from raiding their communities, which were only about 3km from the forest.
He said severe drought had led to the jumbos leaving the depleted forests and foraging for food and water in lowland areas.