WILDLIFE KHAO ANG RUE NAI

Elephants stop, loot trucks on dark road

MANIT SNUBBOON

Chachoengsao _ The chief of Khao Ang Rue Nai wants the road through the wildlife sanctuary closed at night after a herd of elephants held up and looted a string of cargo trucks. About midnight last Saturday a herd of 20 elephants blocked route No.3259 (the Ban Nong Kog-Ban Wang Nam Phon road) holding up 10 trucks, Yoo Senatham said.

They tipped some vehicles on their side, spilling the cargoes on the road so their young could eat, and gorged on sugarcane and tapioca.

''This was not an isolated incident on this road,'' said Yoo Senatham. ''Recently a pregnant deer was hit and killed and last month a pick-up truck hit an elephant.''

These incidents prompted the sanctuary chief to ask provincial governor Arnont Promnart to close the 14.7km route through the park from 9pm to 5am to prevent further danger to travellers and wildlife.

Over the past five years, three people and 14,408 wild animals had died in car accidents on route No.3259, Mr Yoo said. In the same period, a record 1,000 animals were killed in the park by poachers.

Most vehicle accidents happened at night during the dry season, when wild animals crossed the road to nearby Phutai forest in search of water and a salt lick.

About 300,000 vehicles travelled on the road in that period last year.

On Dec 19 the sanctuary office was informed by Sirichai Jitkajorntham, 40, about 8pm that he had hit a big elephant on the road, and injured the animal.

A veterinary team failed to find the elephant, one of an estimated 180 of the animals roaming the sanctuary.

The 643,750 rai sanctuary spills over into five provinces _ Chachoengsao, Chon Buri, Chanthaburi, Sa Kaew and Prachin Buri.

It adjoins Khao Soi Dao national park in Chanthaburi, Khao Yai national park and Khao Chamao.

Bangkok Post

Elephants raid food lorries

The difficulty of finding food during the dry season has driven a group of wild elephants from Chachoengsao's Khao Ang Rue-Nai Wildlife Sanctuary to resort to snatching sugar cane and tapioca from passing trucks, a local forestry official said yesterday.

This, combined with a record of 14,000 animals being run over each year by vehicles using the 14.7-kilometre stretch - which cuts through the sanctuary where it overlaps the borders of Chachoengsao, Chon Buri, Rayong, Chanthaburi and Prachin Buri provinces - has prompted officers to propose shutting the road at night.

Sanctuary chief Yoo Senatham said that on the night of January 6, a group of nearly 20 elephants blocked a stretch of Route 3259, making it impassable for about 10 trucks that normally use the route to transport sugar cane and tapioca. The elephants then ate the crops and some also tried to capsize a truck to get access to the food, he said.

A 45-year-old truck driver, Daeng Thongdee, told officials that he had bought tapioca from Sa Kaew and was on the way to deliver it to a Chachoengsao market when he found his truck was the first in a line that faced the elephants' roadblock.

Fearing the elephants heading towards him, he retreated to the trucks behind him. He saw the elephants eating the tapioca from his truck, which was then left with a broken window, a dented body and a torn plastic cover. The elephants fled into roadside jungle.

The elephants' action stemmed from the fact that many passers-by often threw sugar cane and tapioca to them, Yoo said. This, combined with the fact that each year about 300,000 vehicles used the stretch of road, running over and killing some 14,000 animals, has prompted him to propose to Chachoengsao governor that the stretch - which cut across the wild animals' natural pathways - be closed from 9pm to 5am.

He said motorists could use other routes to reduce the animal road casualties. The death toll was particularly high at night, he said, and a sharp contrast to about 1,000 animals killed by hunters.

The Nation