Elephants collared in move to reduce conflicts with humans
Three elephants in Khao Ang Rue Nai Wildlife Sanctuary of Chachoengsao province are the first to get collars as part of a measure to reduce the risk of human-elephant conflicts in the restricted forested areas in the East.
This project is part of a collaboration between WWF-Thailand and the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP).
The collars, imported from South Africa in December, will be used to study the movement of the pachyderms and help resolve the issue of them destroying crops, Pinsak Suraswadi, DNP deputy director general, said. He presided over the announcement of the project on Tuesday.
“This is not an issue about whether elephants kill people or vice versa – it’s about finding a viable solution where elephants can live in harmony with people in the future,” he said.
The area where the elephants were collared is designated as a “red” area, indicating that it is a high human/elephant conflict zone.
The data collected from the collars will help conservationists and local communities anticipate the elephants’ movements and plan intervention to address the conflicts.
“Wild elephants are a challenge for conservation in Thailand, and WWF and DNP have commenced their research to reduce human-elephant conflicts,” Yowalak Thiarachow, country director of WWF-Thailand, said.