A herd of seven elephants have appeared in a village in the central province of Quang Nam.

The  seven-elephant herd have appeared in a village in Cam La Village

Tran Van Sang, Chairman of Nong Son District’s Que Lam People’s Committee, said that many people in Cam La Village saw the elephants near their fields after the Tet holiday. They shot a short video clip and took photos of the elephants to report their presence to local authorities.  

The herd, which includes a small elephant, has been seen in Cam La Village’s forest area many times, worrying people.

Sang said that the commune warned local people not to bother the elephants. 

They are also provided with some skills to safely drive the elephants away.

According to the Vietnam Administration of Forestry, Nong Son District is one of 15 areas in the country that still have populations of wild elephants. Earlier, Quang Nam Province submitted a proposal to the administration to establish an elephant conservation site in the district, aiming to help conserve the wild population and reduce human-elephant conflicts.

The Vietnam Administration of Forestry’s Environment Conservation Department said that wild elephant population in Vietnam has been on the fall because of loss of habitat and poaching.

In natural forests, there is not enough food for them to survive and so they have to move to the surrounding cultivated areas to forage for food, sparking off conflicts with humans, he said.

The department estimates that there are around 100 wild elephants in the country.

Dtinews