Rampaging elephants destroy crops in central Vietnam
A rampaging herd of rare wild elephants is terrorizing two villages in central Vietnam, destroying crops and ignoring villagers' efforts to ward them off, local media reported Friday.
The herd of 20 elephants has stampeded twice since September through the villages of Ya Lop and Ya Loi in the central highlands province of Dak Lak, according to Lao Dong newspaper.
"The local authorities are helpless in their attempts to chase away the elephants," the article said.
No one has been hurt but the elephants have trampled and destroyed 50 hectares of cashew, rice and corn in the villages.
It was the second incidence of crop-destroying elephants in Vietnam this year.
In July, villagers in nearby Gia Lai province lost 25 hectares of crops to rogue elephants, though it was unclear whether it was the same herd that is now attacking Dak Lak.
Vietnam now has fewer than 100 elephants left in the wild, though they roamed the country by the thousands just 15 years ago.
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 animals to a more remote nature reserve.
Deutsche Presse Agentur - October 27, 2006.
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