Thai pact aims to end conflicts between elephants, humans

Jan 18, 2012, 6:39 GMT

Bangkok - Thai government agencies, conservationists and farmers reached an agreement aimed at reducing conflicts between humans and wild elephants, news reports said Wednesday.

The deal followed several recent cases in which elephants have been shot or electrocuted when they strayed from national parks into neighbouring fruit orchards.

Veera Sriwattanatrakul, governor of Prachuap Khiri Khan province, 240 kilometres south-west of Bangkok, was quoted by the Bangkok Post as saying the pact, signed Tuesday, would avert man-pachyderm confrontations by providing more food to the elephants within wilderness areas.

'We will create food sources for the elephants in the forest,' he said. 'It will be expensive, but we have to do it to ensure that wild elephants and people can live in harmony here and bring an end to these problems.'

It will also more clearly delineate the borders between national parks and farmland.

At least five elephants were reported killed last month, and five wildlife officials, including the assistant chief of Kaeng Krachan National Park, have been implicated in carrying out or covering up the killings.

Poachers were blamed in another case last month when the mutilated carcass of an elephant was found near the Myanmar border.