People in Ma Da commune, Vinh Cuu district, were informed about the behavior of wild elephants and how to handle situations when encountering wild elephants. Photo: B.Nguyen |
However, the situation of human-elephant conflicts is increasingly fierce, requiring urgent solutions to be implemented immediately, as well as short-term and long-term solutions to solve the above problem. In particular, propaganda and training to change the awareness of functional forces as well as people in handling situations when colliding with wild elephants, in order to avoid conflicts, is very important.
Dong Nai has the second largest elephant herd in the country.
Wild elephants live and operate mainly in natural forest areas in Vinh Cuu, Dinh Quan and Tan Phu districts. In recent times, Dong Nai has effectively implemented many elephant conservation programs. Specifically, the electric fence to protect elephants (part of the province's emergency elephant conservation project) has been put into operation and has been effective, limiting conflicts between elephants and humans compared to the period before 2009. From 2020-2023, a pilot program to live in harmony between humans and elephants was implemented. The People's Committees of Tan Phu, Dinh Quan and Vinh Cuu districts have established rapid response teams to conserve elephants.
According to the assessment of the World Organization for Animal Welfare in Vietnam, thanks to good conservation work, Dong Nai's elephant population now has 27 individuals, nearly double the number in the early stages. Dong Nai's elephant population, including many newborns, has very good health, reaching 7-8/10 points.
Mr. Doan Hoai Nam, Deputy Director of the Department of Forestry and Forest Rangers, hopes that local authorities and forest owners will participate in elephant conservation, especially actively implementing propaganda work to change people's awareness and avoid conflicts between humans and elephants. |
However, conflicts between elephants and humans still occur frequently. Specifically, in 2024, wild elephants appeared 179 times, causing 105 cases of crop damage. In the first 5 months of 2025, wild elephants appeared 130 times, causing 70 cases of crop damage. Regarding direct conflicts with humans, in 2023, a resident in Thanh Son commune was attacked and slightly injured while chasing away elephants. Notably, on June 3, a resident in Ma Da commune, Vinh Cuu district died in a conflict with wild elephants. Despite having electric fences, wild elephants still broke the electric fence posts and went through the fence into people's production areas to eat agricultural products such as mangoes, jackfruit, durian, bananas, corn, etc. Broken or fallen electric fences are maintained and repaired promptly to ensure operation.
Mr. Ngo Van Vinh, Head of the Dong Nai Provincial Forest Protection Department, said that the assets of people damaged by wild elephants were counted and supported. Specifically, in 2019 and 2020, Dinh Quan district supported people with about 5 billion VND. In the period of 2020-2023, Vinh Cuu district supported 850 million VND. However, this support is slow. This is also one of the reasons why the conflict between people and elephants is becoming more and more serious.
Urgent action against human-elephant conflict
The Provincial People's Committee recently had a working session with departments, branches, and organizations to discuss solutions to preserve elephants and avoid human-elephant conflicts in Dong Nai.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai, representative of the Humane World Organization for Animals in Vietnam, pointed out the fact that the report recorded the opinions of people about cases of elephant-human conflicts and measures to chase away friendly elephants. But in reality, in cases of elephant-human conflicts, elephants are often shouted at by people, making loud, urgent noises, and being chased away with sharp objects, bricks and stones... Elephants are intelligent animals. Human behavior will create conflicts between elephants and humans or not. If we increase the violence in chasing away elephants, the conflict will become more complicated and more frequent. Here, people must understand elephants better to have a gentle attitude when interacting with elephants.
Accordingly, the Humane World Organization for Animals in Vietnam proposed a group of solutions divided into many levels including: emergency, short-term and long-term solutions focusing on the following contents: proposing a timely support mechanism for people suffering damage caused by wild animals; organizing training for people and forest rangers on safety principles when wild elephants appear; improving the habitat of areas inside electric fences; building a pilot model of a model forest to promote harmonious coexistence with elephants; maintaining electric fences and communityizing the protection of electric fences...
In particular, propaganda and training work aims to help people understand the importance of protecting wild elephants, safety principles when encountering wild elephants, measures to help humans and elephants live together in harmony in the context of minimizing human-elephant conflicts. In addition, forest rangers and rapid response teams for wildlife protection in Vinh Cuu, Tan Phu and Dinh Quan districts need to be trained on contents related to wild elephant conservation to improve understanding of wild elephants, conflict management towards harmonious coexistence between elephants and humans; enhance propaganda skills and capacity to support the community in coordinating and directing elephants back to the forest.
Binh Nguyen
Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/kinh-te/202506/thay-doi-nhan-thuc-de-tranh-xung-dot-voi-nguoi-61b4439/
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