Fears For Elephants As Encroachment Continues

[george]

Fears for elephants as encroachment continues

SURAT THANI: -- National park officials in Thailand's southern province of Surat Thani today voiced fears that wild elephants might be shot by irate local farmers if they continued to encroach on agricultural land.

Mr. Nattaphol Rattanaphan, head of the Tai Rom Yen National Park, expressed his concerns during a meeting of national park officials, noting that a herd of six elephants had recently encroached on land in tambon Klon Sa in a desperate search for food and water.

The elephants, whose normal food and water sources have been made scarce by the recent drought, have already caused over Bt3 million worth of damage.

Mr. Nattaphol admitted that it was proving difficult to push the elephants back onto national park land, as they had become familiar with humans.

He said that he was now liaising with conservationists to find a method to get the elephants out of local fields, while appealing to farmers not to shoot the beasts, or use firecrackers as a means of scaring them away.

--TNA 2005-04-26