Residents in Vinh Cuu and Dinh Quan districts, the southern province of Dong Nai, have proposed local authority construct additional 20 kilometres of electric fence to prevent wild elephants from wandering into residential areas.

A wild elephant seen in Dinh Quan district

Earlier, a 50km-long and 2.2m-high fence was set up along Vinh Cuu district’s Ma Da and Phu Ly communes and Dinh Quan district’s Thanh Son commune. 

The fence use solar energy at low voltage of 4.5-14 kV. Electricity is regularly switched on and off every one third of a second, which helps keep the elephants at bay while not inflicting harm on them.

Along the fence, there are many gates for local residents to pass through. 

Since the fence was put into operation in July last year, there have been a reducing number of elephants’ appearance, attack and destruction of crops of local farms.

However, there’s still space for elephants to enter residential areas and damage local crops as the electric fence has not been erected in the last 20 kilometres of the corridor between the residential area and wile elephants’ original habitat.

The fence is part of a project on urgent conservation of wild elephants in Dong Nai for 2014-2020.

At a mid-term conference to review the project held in Dong Nai on January 26, Dang Huy Huynh, Chairman of the Vietnam Zoological Society, stressed the need to compete the fence and raise public awareness of elephant conservation and ensure that local people can live in harmony with wild elephants.

Meanwhile, Cao Chi Cong, Deputy General of the Vietnam Administration of Forestry under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, asked local authority to effectively use, maintain the electric fence and construct the last 20 kilometres of fence to protect wild elephants.

Dong Nai province’s forest is currently home to 16 wild elephants. - VNA