These are classic, co-ordinated ambushes: a
roadblock is set, and when vehicles stop the raiders sweep out of the
thick jungle to strike their targets.
But rather than guerrillas, the attackers in Thailand’s Khan-Nag Rue-In
wildlife sanctuary are savvy – and desperate – elephants, who hold up
trucks loaded with sugar cane, tapioca and fruit.
Elephants Target Food Trucks in Highway Robberies
Sunday December 19, 2004
Scotsman.com News
These are classic,
co-ordinated ambushes: a roadblock is set, and when vehicles stop the
raiders sweep out of the thick jungle to strike their targets.
But rather than guerrillas, the attackers in Thailand’s Khan-Nag Rue-In
wildlife sanctuary are savvy – and desperate – elephants, who hold up
trucks loaded with sugar cane, tapioca and fruit.
For most of the year, the estimated 200 elephants live quietly in the
dense forests of Khan-Nag Rue-In, near the Cambodian border in eastern
Thailand. But with the onset of the dry season, when water and food
supplies shrink, they move to the road to stage their heists and drink
from a nearby reservoir, says the sanctuary’s chief, Yuo Senatham.
Conveniently for the elephants, this is also the time when hundreds of
trucks rumble along the 9-mile road, laden with newly harvested tapioca
and sugar cane – particular pachyderm favourites.
According to Yuo, a herd leader usually emerges from the jungle at dusk
to block the road. When a vehicle stops, other elephants move in from
the rear to start gobbling up the goodies.
Roadside signs urging motorists not to feed the elephants seem superfluous.
“It’s like the drivers are bribing the elephants – otherwise the
elephants won’t allow trucks to pass through,” Yuo said, adding that
the mightiest of the herd leaders, named Mae Phalaek, has never hurt a
motorist and sounds a general retreat when wildlife officials arrive to
shine spotlights on the culprits.
Villagers in the area also say they have never known the elephants to attack humans.
But this was no comfort for Somkuan Sirisat, who had to seek help when
his tapioca-laden truck got a flat tire recently. He returned to find
half a dozen elephants devouring his cargo.
“I was too frightened to go toward the truck,” said Somkuan, who rushed to the nearby sanctuary field station for help.
“We can’t prevent the elephants from roaming around the road because
the area used to belong to them,” said the sanctuary chief. “What we
can do is prevent them from getting hurt and hurting people.”
He explained that the Thai army cut the road through the 270,300-acre
sanctuary in the 1980s to facilitate the flow of supplies to insurgents
along the Cambodian border, fighting the Cambodian government.
The plight of Thai elephants is not restricted to this reserve.
Chawal Thaphiran, who heads the Forestry Department’s Wildlife
Conservation Division, estimated that of Thailand’s once vast herds,
only about 3,000 wild elephants survive in national parks and other
sanctuaries. Deforestation and battered habitat have forced many to
move into surrounding farming communities in search of food.
Another 2,800 elephants are domesticated, eking out a living as tourist
attractions or beggars who roam Bangkok and other cities with their
keepers.
POLLENATRIX 