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Invading wild elephants disturb village life in SW China

Xinhua, February 9, 2017 Adjust font size:

Local forestry authorities in southwest China's Yunnan Province have been on alert for a group of wild elephants that have been causing chaos in villages.

Early Tuesday, 14 hungry wild Asian elephants invaded crops in Mandao village, Menghai County, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture.

The county's forestry police and bureau sent a group of personnel to give warnings, control traffic and evacuate people to safety. A drone was used to track the elephants.

Forestry policeman Hu Xikai said that the elephants entered the county on Jan. 26 and had been wandering in village woods and roadside farmland looking for food.

Three chicken and two geese were stepped on and killed by the elephants. The elephants also entered expressways and ate village crops.

According to the provincial forestry bureau, more than 48,000 cases of wild elephants causing chaos were reported in Yunnan from 2011 to 2015, resulting in 18 deaths, 27 injuries and economic losses of about 99 million yuan (14 million U.S. dollars).

Wild Asian elephants are Class A protected animals in China, with a population mainly scattered in Yunnan's Xishuangbanna and in the cities of Pu'er and Lincang.

A lack of food on mountains in winter sometimes force the elephants to seek food on village farmland.