TERF Project detail
The Human Elephant Conflict Situation in the Ko Buk area of Salak Pra Wildlife Sanctuary, Thailand
A brief history of Salak Pra and Ko Buk
Salak Pra was designated as Thailand’s first Wildlife Sanctuary in 1965 covering an area of 963 km2. Since then it has lost 195 km2 (20%) to mining (27 km2 ) and the construction of the Sri Nakharin Dam and associated reservoir and village resettlement (168 km2 ) (Stewart-Cox et al, 2000)
At present, Salak Pra is surrounded on nearly all sides by human settlement, roads, the dam and industry. It is connected to the small Chalerm Ratanakosin National Park to the north, but the original boundary with Erawan National Park has now been broken by the dam, roads and settlements.
Ko Buk village and associated settlements are one on one of the land parcels used for village resettlement after the construction of the Dam in 1977, and are situated on the western edge of Salak Pra. A minor road separates the village from the forest.
All members of the re-settled village were given 18 rai (0.029km2) of land to farm and a further 2 rai for building their house. Since the original settlement, some land parcels have been split up between children of the original families and other families have moved into the village and have a home but no farmland. As a result, there are some members of the community who have little or no farmland and so rely on other means to make a living.
The most common livelihoods in the Ko Buk community are farming (mangoes, tamarind, papaya, teak plantations, corn, chilli peppers, vegetables) and collection of forest products, particularly bamboo, bamboo shoots mushrooms and wild vegetables. Some of the collection of forest products is for personal consumption or for selling locally, however some is for selling to the larger towns or to tourists who pass through the area. In addition, people from further away are known to collect mushrooms and bamboo shoots to sell in the nearby towns. The collection of these products is illegal, but the National Parks Department finds it hard to control or manage these activities and at present there are no concessions for local communities to collect non-timber forest products.
Elephants in Salak Pra Wildlife Sanctuary
The total number of elephants in Salak Pra is unknown and little is known about changes in population size, historical and current movements or the areas used by the elephants. Steward-Cox et al carried out a questionnaire survey of forest rangers and villagers in 1999/2000 to obtain information about local knowledge of elephants and other large wildlife. From this survey they found that most of Salak Pra is used by elephants, with the central grassland areas and permanent water resources being the focal areas. They estimated the elephant population to be about 40 elephants.
The forests of Salak Pra do contain year round water resources and mineral licks for wildlife and are considered to have sufficient food for elephants. However, there are water holes and mineral licks within the farmland around Ko Buk and a few patches of bamboo forest on small hills surrounded by farms. Undoubtedly, old elephant trails cross the farmland to these resources and would have gone further to the Kwae Yai River, and probably forests beyond, prior to the construction of the dam and reservoir.
Human Elephant Conflict at Ko Buk
The human elephant conflict problem has been occurring in the Ko Buk community for over 20 years. Crop raiding has occurred since the early 1980’s and in about 1984 three people were chased by an elephant when they went to collect plants from the forest. A young man was killed and another was injured, the third managed to escape. This was the first serious confrontation between humans and elephants and since then it has escalated.
Adapted from Stewart-Cox 2000 and interviews with villagers
Approximate Year |
Injury |
Death |
c. 1984 |
1 |
1 |
1994 |
1 |
|
1998/99 |
1 |
1 |
2000 |
1 |
|
2006 |
1 |
|
Mangoes used to be a major crop for the farmers of Ko Buk, but now there are few trees left as most have succumbed to the elephants and farmers feel that it is no longer worthwhile trying to grow mangoes. Many other plants they try and grow have also been damaged by the elephants.
Now in 2006 elephants or elephant sign can be seen almost daily in the fields around Ko Buk during the mango season (April/May) and the corn season (May to July). Sugar cane and a few small areas of rain fed rice are also grown during this period. Most years the rains start in April or May, but it is a while before crops are ready to harvest. There are a number of important non-timber forest products that are available at this time including bamboo shoots, mushrooms, bamboo and various vegetables and herbs.
Many community members supplement their income by collecting these forest products to supplement their income. In mushroom and bamboo shoot season, a lot of people from other villages and even Kanchanaburi come to collect in the forest. The constant people presence in the forest adds to the pressure put on the elephants. For the villagers, entering the forest when the elephants are around is a serious risk. They meet or hear the elephants almost every day between April and July and many members of the village have been chased by elephants at one point. Few of the elderly villagers dare enter the forest now as they are not swift enough to escape the elephants.
On 30th April 2006 two men entered the forest to collect a vegetable known in Thai as ‘pak waan’. They had collected what they needed and were on their way out of the forest when they met an female elephant with small tusks (kanay in Thai). The elephant made no sound as she charged towards the men. One man was seriously injured and the other one escaped with minor bruising caused when he fell and rolled out of the way of the charging elephant.
The people of Ko Buk believe that there are some elephants that use the forest near their village that are fierce by nature. These elephants will almost always charge when they meet people. There are other elephants that are not fierce and that will run away when they meet people.
Dealing with HEC at Ko Buk
An elephant died on farmland within the Ko Buk area in 1999, the cause of death was never discovered. Wildlife Fund Thailand (WFT) worked with the community after this event to find ways to deal with the HEC problem, particularly how to protect mangoes and corn as these were the two major crops for the community.
It was not possible to construct a fence just on the forest side of the road as this would result in conflict with community members who relied on forest products for their living.
In February 2000 WFT and the farmers constructed a two-strand electric fence with wooden poles Over a stretch of six kilometers where the elephants were leaving the forest, crossing a minor road and entering the fields. The first two kilometers were on the forest side of the road, the next two on the field side of the road and the final two on the forest side. At each end of a 2km stretch, a small look-out hut was constructed. Three farmer groups from two villages were responsible for looking after each 2km stretch and manning the lookout huts. If elephants were seen, they were deterred from entering the fields by using noise, lights and sometimes vehicles to chase them back into the forest. The farmers also tied plastic bags along the fence at intervals of about one metre. The fence was powered by a car battery with an adapter to reduce the power in the electric fence to 12 volts.
This system worked well for the first season and the villagers took responsibility for checking the fence, repairing breaks and maintaining the equipment. They saw that the elephants soon learnt that wires with plastic bags on were dangerous and elephants would not go past such a fence. The fields with the fence were well protected, but mango and corn fields else where were raided heavily. The farmers estimated that about 40 to 50% of the overall crop was protected, but the remainder was severely damaged with many mango trees being torn down.
The following year, fewer farmers were interested in growing mangoes or corn as they considered it to be uneconomical. As a result, there were fewer people in each of the three groups to look after the fence and man the lookout huts. In addition, there were more unprotected mango fields and the elephants demolished many trees.
After that, there was no communal effort to protect fields. Instead, individual farmers protected their own fields with electric fencing – mostly a single strand with wooden fence posts – either using their own battery or using the community’s battery that had been used for the communal fence. Mostly the use of electric fences does protect the fields, but the cost of recharging the battery means that poorer farmers don’t put the fences on every night. Farmers report having seen elephants testing the wire with their bottoms, if they get a shock they return to the forest, if they don’t they push over a fence post and step over the fence. Electric fences set to protect fields from cattle are generally too low and the elephants can step quite easily over them.
A small restaurant owner who has recently moved to Ko Buk has created a small salt lick near the edge of the forest opposite his restaurant. In season, he puts mangoes on the forest/roadside edge and many tourists come to see the elephants there. The restaurant owner does not charge visitors, though will benefit from increased trade. He reports regularly seeing a family of eight or nine animals and two tuskless (Sidor) bulls. No tusked bulls are seen here, though one is seen deeper in the forest.
Some community members are concerned that feeding the elephants will encourage them to stay close to the village for longer and increase their liking for mangoes. Towards the end of May 2006, elephants entered the main village area for the first time to raid mango trees adjacent to people’s homes.
In Summary
The short stretch of electric fence erected by WFT and the villagers was effective so long as there was communal effort to maintain and man it. Once the communal effort broke down, the farmers were left to their own devices to look after their own fields though many cannot afford permanent good quality fences.
The elephants in Salak Pra are under continual pressure from human presence in the forest and have also lost part of their range and possibly a migration route to farms and a reservoir. Some community members reported that elephants are still hunted in Salak Pra – both for tusks and possibly live capture for the tourist trade.
There appears to be a conflict of interest between villagers who want to attract visitors to the area to come and see elephants and farmers who want to encourage the elephants to use areas far from the road and the Ko Buk community. If elephant tourism was established in a safer and more organized fashion with benefits reached all parts of the village, the current conflict may be solved.
As the elephants have now entered the village to find mangoes, the potential for an increase in frequency and damage level of conflict between humans and elephants is very high.