KANCHANABURI: Local national park staff plan to grow food for wild elephants on 2,000 rai so they will no longer need to raid nearby crops, which leads to sometimes lethal clashes with farmers.
Officials met in Thong Pha Phum district on Monday to brainstorm ideas on how to best stop a herd of 40-50 wild elephants attacking people defending their crops in Sai Yok and Thong Pha Phum districts.
Charoen Jaichon, chief of Thong Pha Phum National Park, said a flat open area of about 2,000 rai in the adjacent Sai Yok National Park was a suitable spot to grow food for the elephants. It connects with both Thong Pha Phum and Sai Yok districts and had water sources.
Park rangers would also look for a suitable area in Thong Pha Phum National Park which, however, consisted mainly of steep mountainsides.
After the surveys, the 2,000-rai in the Sai Yok National Park could be proposed to the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation for the purpose, he said.
Participants at the meeting also proposed a fund be raised to pay for the production of mineral licks and crops for wild elephants and to take care of villagers who risk their lives by volunteering to keep hungry wild elephants out of the village fields at night.
Since 2015, wild elephants have killed three people and injured nine others in their incursions onto farmland and into communities in Sai Yok and Thong Pha Phum districts.