Learning to live with elephants

China, which is among the world's 13 major habitats for wild Asian elephants, has made an outstanding contribution to protecting the species. Despite the global decline in elephant numbers, the country has witnessed a remarkable increase in its wild Asian elephant population, soaring from around 150 to over 300 in the past three decades, according to the Yunnan Forestry and Grassland Bureau.

The Asian elephant, the continent's largest land animal, is under first-class protection in China. The species is mainly scattered in Yunnan's Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture, Pu'er and Lincang. Its habitat has expanded from covering 14 townships in the province in the 1990s to 61 in 2020.

More than two-thirds of the wild elephant herds in Xishuangbanna and neighboring Pu'er regularly roam outside nature reserves, making trips to surrounding villages and farmlands for food and causing conflicts between the elephants and people, the bureau added.

"The wild elephants are highly intelligent. Once they've had the taste of delicious corn or fruits planted by us, they always come back for more. We tried to install electric fences around the farmland to stop them from getting in, but they can easily find the power supply, shut it down and pull the fences out of the ground," Tao said. "There is literally nothing we can do when we find them eating the crops because we all know how aggressive and dangerous the elephants can be once they are disturbed."

The villagers have tried to grow agricultural products that aren't traditionally included in the elephants' diet. However, they quickly discovered that these elephants were also fond of the new items on the menu such as bananas, passion fruit and jackfruit. In fact, these wild Asian elephants have eaten more than 400 different varieties of crops, said Tao.