Money disbursed, but elephant protection project at a standstill

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Five elephants died for unclear reasons in the first several months of 2015 in the central province of Dak Lak, raising big concern about the fate of the rare and precious wild animals.

After one hard working day, on January 15, 2015, Book Kham, a male elephant, 36 years old, owned by Dam Nang Long in Lien Son Town of Lak District, was allowed to go to the forest to seek food. 

But it never came back to his house. When Long and his family members went to the forest to bring the elephant back to their house, they discovered that Book Kham was dead. 

Competent agencies, which examined the elephant dead body, said that they could not find any signs of disease or bad health of the elephant and believed that the elephant died because of a fall.

However, the conclusion raised doubts among locals, who said they had never heard that wild animals like elephants could just suddenly fall on the ground.

On March 7, Kham Thung, a 30-year-old elephant, was also found dead in the forest. According to Y Ka Tuk in Krong Na Commune, the elephant is valued at VND700 million. It had been raised by him for many years, carrying tourists in good health conditions.

Kham Phu, a 38-year-old elephant, unexpectedly died on its way to its house. More recently, Y Lun, a 38-year-old elephant was found dead with many foot injuries. Prior to that, the ill-fated elephant had its tail cut. Y Lun is the last domesticated elephant in the commune. 

According to Dr. Bao Huy, head of the Dak Lak elephant conservation project planning team, many of the local elephants, after years of living in captivity and working for tourist projects, have diseases. However, they are not released to the forest to seek herbs to treat themselves. The uncured diseases plus meals lacking nutrition have caused exhaustion. 

As the habitat for elephants has narrowed because of increasingly serious deforestation, elephants now have to eat food they don’t like. 

Huy said that the life expectancy of elephants is as long as human’s, therefore, it is worrying that many elephants have died at the age of 30 to 40. 

Under the Dak Lak elephant conservation project, an elephant breeding area would be set up within the Yok Don National Park in Buon Don District. This would be a 200 hectare area with food, herbs and water to help improve elephants’ health.