Dong Nai strengthens protection of wild elephant herd.

In response to the frequent appearance of wild elephants in residential areas, on May 23, the Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Dong Nai City, Nguyen Tuan Anh, signed a document requesting relevant departments, agencies, and localities to strengthen efforts to conserve the wild elephant population in the area and take measures to minimize conflicts between elephants and people.

An individual elephant lives in the forest area of ​​the Dong Nai Nature-Cultural Reserve.

Accordingly, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Dong Nai City, Nguyen Tuan Anh, requested the Dong Nai Nature-Cultural Reserve to urgently fill in deep pits and wells to ensure the safety of people and forest animals moving in the area.

The People's Committees of the wards and communes of Phu Ly, Tri An, Thanh Son, Dak Lua, Ta Lai, and Tan Loi direct the rapid response teams for wildlife conservation to continue to enhance their sense of responsibility and perform their assigned tasks well; promptly assist people when unexpected incidents occur and rescue forest animals when accidents happen within their managed areas.

The Dong Nai Department of Agriculture and Environment proactively worked with the Forestry and Forest Protection Department ( Ministry of Agriculture and Environment ) to receive support in organizing professional and technical training for rapid response teams for forest animal conservation in Dong Nai city, especially on assisting people when elephants appear.

The leaders of the People's Committee of Dong Nai City requested the Department of Agriculture and Environment, the Dong Nai Nature-Cultural Reserve, and relevant localities to urgently implement and report the results before June 5, 2026.

A three-year-old wild elephant that fell into a deep pit was successfully rescued on May 13th.

Previously, on May 13th, a 3-year-old wild elephant fell into a deep pit in a mango orchard belonging to a household in Ba Hao neighborhood, Tri An ward. After many hours of rescue efforts, authorities successfully returned the elephant to the forest.

Currently, approximately 30 Asian elephants are recorded living in the forest areas of Dong Nai province. To protect this rare wild elephant herd and prevent conflicts with people living near the forest, since 2013, the People's Committee of Dong Nai province (now city) has approved and implemented the Dong Nai Elephant Conservation Emergency Project, giai đoạn 2014-2020. This has resulted in the construction of an electric fence system to deter and protect the elephant herd.

In July 2017, a 50km-long electric fence, part of the Emergency Elephant Conservation Project, was put into operation at a total cost of 74 billion VND. However, when blocked, the elephant herd followed the fence to an area without an electric fence and continued to destroy crops belonging to local residents.

Therefore, in December 2021, Dong Nai decided to allocate an additional 14 billion VND to build an additional 25km of electric fence to encircle the area, minimizing conflicts between humans and wild elephants.

The electric fence system is part of the Dong Nai Elephant Conservation Emergency Project.

However, since the completion of a total of 75km of electric fence, wild elephants have appeared in residential areas every year, causing conflicts between the elephants and the people.

In Phu Ly commune alone, since the beginning of the year, wild elephants have frequently appeared, entering people's agricultural land, continuously destroying crops, flowers, and property, and posing a potential safety risk. Statistics show that 204 people have suffered damage to their crops and property due to wild elephants.

In response to this situation, the leaders of the Dong Nai City People's Committee issued a document instructing the Department of Agriculture and Environment to propose solutions to prevent wild elephants from crossing the electric fence into residential areas and destroying crops in Phu Ly commune.

In addition, review the records, current status, and effectiveness of the electric fence project to prevent wild elephants from entering densely populated areas; and agree on solutions to prevent conflicts between wild elephants and local people.

One local resident and one baby elephant will die in 2025.

On the evening of June 2, 2025, a herd of wild elephants entered the garden of Mr. LVT (born in 1959), Group 2, Hamlet 4, Ma Da Commune (now Tri An Ward). At that time, Mr. T attempted to drive them away, but a conflict ensued with the elephants, resulting in his death.

Earlier, in early May 2025, while searching for food in a residential area in Hamlet 3, Ma Da Commune (now Tri An Ward), a baby elephant died after accidentally falling into a well. This unfortunate incident once again highlights the urgent need to protect the rare wild elephant population.

KING OF HEAVEN

Source: https://nhandan.vn/dong-nai-tang-cuong-bao-ve-dan-voi-rung-post964182.html