Slaying the beast of human-elephant conflict

Slaying the beast of human-elephant conflict

A Thai proverb says, "You can't hide a dead elephant with a lotus leaf". This means a guilty conscience needs no accuser. It is absolutely true. The consequences of last week's brutal killing of a family of three wild elephants at a meditation centre in Hua Hin district, Prachuap Khiri Khan, prove the rule of karma does exist. The tragic deaths made headlines and raised public concerns. Officials later found the three pachyderms were electrocuted. An employee of the meditation centre was finally arrested for erecting the electrified fence that killed the elephants. He was charged with hunting protected animals and faces up to four years imprisonment and a 40,000 baht fine under the Wildlife Conservation Act if found guilty.

This incident may also lead to a massive crackdown on state land encroachment in that area. The owner of the meditation centre has been charged with encroaching on state land since the building was built on royal project territory that was allocated to poor farmers and prohibited from being sold under a cabinet resolution 38 years ago. The centre covers 83 rai of land, 53 rai of which encroached on state land which is under the supervision of Prachuap Khiri Khan's Office of Social Development and Human Security. The accused has promised to clear all the buildings and return land to the state.

It is a coincidence that I had intended to write about human-elephant conflicts (HEC) and royal project land encroachment. Two weeks ago, I visited Hua Hin's tambon Huai Sat Yai to experience ecotourism and a durian fair. Highlights included watching wild elephants from the Kaeng Krachan National Park, visiting a rescued ill wild elephant and learning about the elephant conservation project.

Thongbai Charoendong, head of the elephant conservation project in Kaeng Krachan National Park, revealed that HEC has long existed with the wild animals raiding local farms and eating crops. The project is jointly run by the Department of National Parks, Wildlife, Plant Conservation and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Thailand.

According to him, the wild elephant population in the 1.8 million-rai Kaeng Krachan National Park totals about 250, including 150 in the Pala-U area, 50 in the Pa Deng area and 50 in the Phet River-Ban Krang-Pong Phrom area.

The elephants love to stay and forage the Pala-U area because of good official protection and abundant food and water sources. Most affected villagers opt for alarm systems and guards on watch, and then chase away wild elephants with the sound of firecrackers. According to the centre, human-elephant conflicts occur primarily south of the Kaeng Krachan National Park covering 17 villages in Phetchaburi and Prachuap Khiri Khan, especially at the borders of the National Park, totalling about 50km². In tambon Huai Sat Yai alone, eight of 11 villages have been raided by wild elephants with about 63-157 cases per family, per year. Many dairy farms and crop fields have been affected, with the cost of damage totalling over 3.94 million baht.

Since 2000, the National Park and the WCS Thailand have jointly conducted research projects and training for conservation areas. The study also collected information to resolve conflicts between people and elephants in the southern part of the park.

After various studies and experiments, they concluded that the key to successfully deterring elephants was cooperative guarding together with alarm systems. The effects of chilli, vinegar or low-voltage electric fencing show no clear advantages over the alarm system and/or guarding, and would incur higher costs.

Since September 2008, the use of alarmed fences and permanent guard stations have been promoted to the communities around the park.

Many villagers are actively engaged in HEC mitigation and some of them even gave up their previous hunting careers and become active participants in the HEC monitoring programme.

Monitoring from Nov 2004-Oct 2014 found the number of HEC cases decreased from over 400 in 2004 to about 250 in 2006 and 220 in 2008, after the installation of alarmed fences, and to around 100 in 2009 after the establishment of night patrol teams. The number was stable from 2009 to 2012. Since the introduction of semi-permanent fences in 2012, the number of cases has continued to decline.

In my personal opinion, the death of the three elephants partly stemmed from outsiders' lack of understanding of the problem and potential solutions given that the killing was done by a non-local on encroached royal project land.

During my visit to that tambon, Sompong Phoomphuang, a Huai Sat Yai Administration Organisation officer who has coordinated work with the royal projects for decades, told me that many of the royal project land plots were sold by locals to outsiders despite the regulation for each villager to occupy and use no more than 23 rai for farming and not to sell the land to others.

According to him, half of the 80,000 rai Huai Sat Yai is royal project land. About 300-400 local families occupy royal project territory, but 10% of them sold all the land they had to outsiders and 60% sold parts of it.

The royal project committee has been trying to resolve the problem.

Unfortunately, land encroachment led to the brutal killing of the three elephants before the introduction of appropriate measures.

However, I am still hopeful that humans and elephants can live happily together under appropriate measures and the royal project land encroachers will be brought to justice soon.


Pichaya Svasti is a travel writer for Life section of the Bangkok Post. 

Pichaya Svasti

Life Writer

Pichaya Svasti is a writer of the Life section of the Bangkok Post.

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