Rampaging elephants alarm Ratanakiri villagers

[geovalin]

Elephants began rampaging through villages in two Ratanakiri communes on Friday causing damage to huts and rice bags and sparking new patrols by local authorities to protect the native pachyderms as well as villagers. Ratanakiri provincial authorities are cooperating with O’ Ya dav National Park rangers to ensure the safety of the area in Pak Nhai and Ya Tung communes.

 

Ministry of Environment spokesman Neth Pheaktra said yesterday that the officials educated villagers not to affect to elephant’s way of life. “The elephants came to destroy the villagers’ homesteads. It is a kind of dispute between elephants and people” he said. “Elephants migrate and will come back to the place where they always depended on their forest. So, the officials must protect both elephants and villagers’ safety.”

 

Pheaktra said that more than 30 elephants are estimated to be living in O’ Ya dav National Park and in Cambodia today, there are between 400 and 600 wild Asian elephants. The number of domestic elephants is estimated at 71. Sem Lin, deputy governor of  O’ Ya dav district, said that over the weekend some elephants entered the villages at night and ransacked the huts causing fear and panic.

 

read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50800477/rampaging-elephants-alarm-ratanakiri-villagers/