THAILAND: Forestry rangers to partially close a provincial highway after sugar cane trucks were robbed by wild elephants.

Frequent accidents between elephants and vehicles have caused Thai officials to set a curfew on a highway that runs through a forest. A highway running through one of Thailand's wildlife sanctuaries has recently become the stage for accidents between elephants and trucks. Elephants were spotted blocking roads and attacking trucks on a highway that goes through the 280,000-acre Ang Lue Nai wildlife sanctuary, located some 250 kilometers east of Bangkok. "It was one night when six vehicles were attacked, three trucks and three small cars, my truck was in the third incident that night," said Manoon Srisalao, a tapioca truck driver who transports the Cambodian produce to a mill in central Thailand. The sanctuary sits on a main transport location - it links three eastern border provinces to central Bangkok. One driver also spoke of elephants breaking the vehicles' wind shields. "Sometimes the whole elephant herd of 6 - 7 stand in middle of the road and the trucks can not go through, some of them try to pull sugar canes from the truck, when they can not, they just head butt the truck front and break the wind shield," said Puern Meksan, a sugar cane truck driver. Truck drivers in the area have said accidents are more frequent since the first incident, which happened in 2005. Yet forestry officials said the elephants have never act aggressively towards human beings during the past 15 years since the highway was opened in 1992. For now, curfews have been imposed from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. daily by the Department of National Parks to curb the number of accidents. The animals have attracted many tourists, especially after photos of a young elephant swinging its trunk in front of a car were published in Thailand. Many of the visitors have sympathised with the elephants, saying the drivers should be responsible and steer clear of the animals. "It is not good that the sanctuary has a highway that goes through since that changes the environment of the forest," said came on a weekend to visit the sanctuary from Bangkok. Conservationists add that people must respect the animals' territory. "People have to accept the conditions here, because we are reaching into the animal habitat, so we have to be more careful when we travel on the road and we need to accept the rules and many restrictions to make it safe for both humans and animals," said You Senatham, chief of the central sanctuary. Wildlife conservation reports said three elephants were killed and seven injured on the highway. In addition, more than 14,000 animals, including endangered frogs, birds and deer were also killed. Three motorists killed had died from crashes involving animals.

ITN Source | January 30, 2007

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