20 Mahouts Recruited For Elephant Roundup Unit

[george]

TRAFFIC NUISANCE: 20 mahouts recruited for elephant roundup unit

BANGKOK: Twenty mahouts and 10 large trucks will operate around-the-clock to remove all roaming elephants from Bangkok's streets.

"This special taskforce was recently formed to tackle the problem," said Natural Resources and Environment Minister Prapat Panyachatraksa yesterday.

Upon receiving reports of roaming pachyderms, the taskforce will round up the animals and send them to Kanchanaburi, Lampang and Mae Hong Son provinces.

"We have prepared areas for these elephants," Prapat said. He encouraged people to call 1362 to have elephants rounded up.

"The mahouts will relieve police of the task of apprehending the large animals," he said. "Without mahouts, it would be very difficult to control them." Prapat said the authorities would also seize elephants whose keepers fail to produce the animals' identification papers or show documents that do not match the elephants' appearance.

"The Forest Industry Organisation will release the elephants in the forest," the minister added.

Prapat said he had instructed police officers to take tough action against owners who took elephants to the capital.

"Such an offence breaks six laws," he said.

Prapat said the special taskforce would operate with a Bt7.5-million budget from January to June.

It was estimated that there are between 200 and 250 elephants roaming the streets of Bangkok. Elephant keepers reportedly earn Bt1,000 a day each by asking donors to buy food to feed the animals.

The promise of such earnings has lured many elephant owners to Bangkok, Prapat said, even though they had been offered wages of Bt10,500 a month to patrol national forests under a scheme to curb the roaming beasts.

"We believe our special taskforce will be effective in solving the problem," said Prapat.

--The Nation 2004-01-27