Rare elephants wreak havoc
2006-07-12 14:32
Hanoi - A herd of rampaging elephants in central Vietnam has destroyed crops and put villagers on high alert, an official said on Wednesday.
The 15 rare wild elephants first appeared in Gia Lai province's Chu Prong district over the weekend and have since trampled at least 25 hectares of corn and rice paddy, according to Bui Viet Hoi of the local communist People's Committee.
No one has been hurt, but Chu Prong's residents have been warned to "be aware of being attacked", Hoi said.
Still, he said, "We have asked local people not to shoot the elephants, as they are endangered."
Vietnam now has fewer than 100 elephants left in the wild, though they roamed the country by the thousands just 15 years ago, according to Vietnamese media.
Hunting and clearing forests for farmland are the main threats to the elephants, environmentalists say.
In 2001, a herd of eight rogue elephants in southern Binh Thuan provinces killed 20 settlers before an operation to move the elephants into a more remote nature reserve. - Sapa-dpa
- SAPA