VietNamNet Bridge - According to statistics from the Dak Lak
Elephant Conservation Center, since 2009, at least 14 wild elephants died,
including four adult elephants which were killed for their tusks and tail
hairs, and 10 died of unknown causes. Besides, ten domestic elephants also
died.
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The brutal massacres
In late August 2012, two adult
elephants were discovered dead by shooting at the same time at the Yok Don
National Park, Dak Lak province.
Two elephants - one male, one
female - lied dead about 5m from each other. Each animal, which weighed up to a
ton, had many wounds on their bodies.
At the time they were found, the
two elephants were in the process of decomposition. The male elephant’s body is
not intact because hunters cut its head to take tusks. Its trunk was also cut
off. Many other parts were also taken.
According to the Dak Lak Elephant
Conservation Center, the elephants are members of a herd of 30 wild elephants
in Yok Don National Park.
In March 2012, an adult male
elephant of 2.4 m high, 4.3 m long and 1.5 - 2 tons in weight, also a member of
the above elephant herd, was shot down in Ea Sup district. The elephant was
discovered when it was in a state of decomposition. This elephant also lost its
tusk, its tail, its trunk and its feet.
In August 2009, a male elephant
weighing 5 tons was found dead in the forest of Ea Soup, Dak Lak. The police
identified that it was killed for its tusks.
It is very strange that the
culprits of all cases related to the death of wild elephants since 2009 have
been "unknown.”
Not only wild elephants but also
domestic elephants are attacked. Some of them survived but some were dead.
That was the case of a male
elephant named Pak Ku, of Thanh Ha resort in Buon Don Village. On a rainy night
in late October 2010, Pak Ku was chained in the forest. It was burnt and
stabbed by someone, in order to take tusks and tail hairs.
The elephant escaped but it still
died at the age of 30, after more than two months of fighting with over 200
stabs.
Elephants banned from “making love”
Statistics show a dramatic
decline of tamed elephants in Dak Lak. If in 1980, there were 502 elephants, in
1990 the number dropped almost a half to 298. In 2000 the figure was just 96
and it is only 51 at present.
Not only fewer in number, tamed
elephants are degraded in quality, as about 30% of them have become old.
In the last 20 years, tamed
elephants in DakLak have not delivered even a single baby. This is easy to
understand because they do not have the suitable environment or the time to
“make love.”
Currently, the tamed elephants
are mainly used to serve tourism. As they belong to different owners, male and
female elephants do not have chance to meet. In other words, they are
"forbidden from love."
About reproduction of elephants,
the owners of male elephants usually do not benefit. They even have to pay
compensation in case their elephants hurt female elephants during the
copulating process. As a result, they are afraid of let their male elephants be
together with female elephants of other people.
The herd of tamed elephants is
rapid declining while the herd of forest elephants numbers only about 100
individuals. Meanwhile, hunting wild elephants for domestication has been
prohibited for a very long time.
With just over 100 individuals,
the wild elephants are being hunted, resulting in their restricted
reproductively.
Of the 14 elephants that died
from 2009, in addition to four adult elephants that were shot dead for tusks
and tail hairs, the remaining elephants are small elephants. They died because
of different reasons.
According to scientists, to
develop stably, an elephant herd needs at least 50 individuals. In Dak Lak,
there are about 10 flocks of forest elephants but the biggest herds have less
than 30 individuals.
Along with that, the natural
environment for elephants is being narrowed while the sources of food are
becoming scarce. Elephants have to go to residential areas to search food,
causing the conflicts between elephants and humans. This fact makes both wild
elephants in Dak Lak and the local people face many dangers.
In the current situation of
conservation, Dak Lak elephants are put in a state of alert and this makes
people doubt that one day, the Central Highlands will be absent of elephants.
Yen Thanh
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