Environment
Dak Lak budgets $3m for elephant protection
  • | VNS | November 10, 2010 02:34 PM

The People\'s Committee of Dak Lak Province has approved a VND60 billion (US$3 million) project to protect elephants in Viet Nam\'s Central Highlands.

Wild elephants are tamed by residents in Buon Don District.The new protection project will create a sanctuary for the species.

Senior park ranger Y Rit Bya said that forests would be set aside for wild elephants and habitats would be created for domesticated ones. The project would also include veterinary clinic to provide medical care and help with breeding, he said.

Elephants are mostly distributed in the Buon Don, Ea Sup and Ea H\'Leo Districts on about 160,000ha. According to a Central Highlands University survey, the land is a sanctuary for the species. Sadly, human encroachment is diminishing its effectiveness.

Park rangers identified a wild elephant that killed a teenager in southern Dong Nai Province\'s Dinh Quan District last Sunday. This was the first death caused by an elephant in 10 years, the rangers said.

The elephant chased 14-year-old Nguyen Tran Vu of Dinh Quan District\'s Thanh Son Commune while the boy was on his way to Da Ban Spring. He was killed when the elephant picked the boy up with his trunk and threw him violently to the ground.

When Vu\'s companions screamed, the elephant bolted toward the forest.

Although the same elephant had severely damaged crops when it rampaged through the fields of the Vinh Cuu District\'s Phu Ly Commune last year, the animal, which recently re-appeared many kilometres away, did not seem dangerous.

Phu Ly Commune resident Do Xuan Tinh said that he saw the elephant once when returning from the forest in the late evening.

"I stiffened with fear," he said. "But the beast approached me gradually and tickled me with his trunk. Then he let me go."

In May, the provincial Department of Park Rangers completed a draft for an elephant conservation project at the Prime Minister\'s request.

The VND23 billion ($1.4 million) project, one-third of which will be funded by the central government and the rest by the provincial government, has yet to be implemented due to unsettled disputes between Dong Nai Province and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

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