Balance of protecting both elephants and human lives

World
Europe

The increased number of Asian elephants in China has put an increasing pressure on balancing efforts for both human safety and elephant conservation.

In southwest China's Yunnan Province, people's lives and safety are all affected by the large number of wild elephants freely roaming in the area. In the past five years, some 200 people have been killed by elephants. These wild animals have also been one of the main factors for financial and agricultural losses in Yunnan.

Conservation work has been successful in increasing wild animal populations. In 2004, there were only 180 Asian elephants in existence in China. But this year, there are over 300 Asian elephants. The task now is to strike a balance in the competition for land between people and animals.

Local people, police and officials have mapped out different means to get the elephants to go back into the forest. Starting from 2011, a wildlife public liability insurance was created to help make up for the losses caused by elephants.

Zang Li, an ecology professor from Beijing Normal University said that in six to seven counties where elephants inhabit, the forest area has been reduced by about 9,000 square kilometers in 40 years.

"Because there's been a reduction of habitat, elephants are spreading out, and such a move is overlapping with people's living areas. So there's a conflict between people and elephants," Pro. Chen Mingyong from the School of Life Science in Yunnan University said.