Editor's note: As protection of the planet's flora, fauna and resources becomes increasingly important, China Daily is publishing a series of stories to illustrate the country's commitment to safeguarding the natural world.
Wild Asian elephants in Xishuangbanna, Southwest China's Yunnan province. CHINA DAILY
For many residents of Dahuangba village in Xishuangbanna, wild Asian elephants were the neighbors from hell.
With their farms located on the edge of the rainforest where the elephants live, the locals could only watch in despair as marauding herds ate their fill.
Some unlucky residents have even found themselves trapped in their cars as curious pachyderms shook them back and forth as if they were toys. While it's all just fun and games for the elephants, experiences like these were terrifying for the average resident.
As such, the people of Dahuangba in Southwest China's Yunnan province used to hate wild Asian elephants.
However, attitudes are beginning to change in these rural communities thanks to the use of modern technologies such as early warning apps that track the whereabouts of these elephants, and dedicated teams of rangers who keep a close eye on the movements of herds.
A temporary sign sits at the side of the village's main road, ready to be used in the event of elephant sightings, reading:
"Wild elephants spotted ahead. Do not approach. Do not pass. Do not take photos. Do not try and chase them away."
Dahuangba local Tao Daqiang said that packs of elephants have become frequent visitors to his farmland, especially during harvest season, as they know where the good food is.
It doesn't help that the village is closely located to the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve — a lush 241,000-hectare tropical forest and an area about one and a half times the size of London — a major habitat of wild Asian elephants.
"Almost all villagers have encountered the wild elephants one way or another in the past," Tao said. "I think the best way to achieve harmonious coexistence between the elephants and the villagers is to keep each other out of sight because no encounter with a wild elephant is pleasant."
Wild Asian elephant Long Long plays with tree branches in Xishuangbanna in August. HU CHAO/XINHUA
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.
Elephants appear in thermal imaging captured by a ranger's drone in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan province. CHINA DAILY
Real-time monitoring
Before heading to his farmland for work, Tao pulls out his cellphone and taps the wild Asian elephant watch app. This handy piece of tech shows the movements of nearby herds and sends out early warnings.
"The nearest herd is about 2 kilometers away. It will send me a warning when they reach a 1-km radius from where I am. Many villagers now have the habit of checking the location of the herds before going out," Tao said.
Considering the elderly villagers who aren't used to using cellphones, warnings are also broadcast via loudspeakers and warning signs also get put out, he added.
Launched in August 2020, the early warning system monitors any presence of wild Asian elephants near the villages surrounding the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve.
With the help of 600 infrared cameras and 177 intelligent broadcasting systems, 38 areas where the wild species frequently appears are covered. The system uses artificial intelligence image recognition to identify the elephants, and the entire process from image capture to the sending of early warnings only takes about 15 seconds, according to the reserve.
Meanwhile, in Xishuangbanna and Pu'er, a team of 55 Asian elephant rangers monitor their activity, especially the larger herds.
On an afternoon in July in Xishuangbanna's Mengman village, ranger Zheng Xuan, launches a drone equipped with an infrared camera to monitor a patch of forest near farmland and the rail line linking China and Laos.
"The Ran Ran family slept there overnight, so we sent out a warning to the villagers via the mobile phone app at 3 am," Zheng said. "It's now around 4 pm and just about time for them to wake up."
Within minutes, infrared images show the elephants moving near the edge of the forest, their body heat captured in pink.
Zheng then flew the drone above them at a safe distance and switched on the normal camera. The herd of 31, consisting of adults and calves, was seen casually on the move in the forest. Each herd is led by the oldest female elephant, the matriarch, which decides where to move, eat and rest.
"Without a doubt, China is the safest place for Asian elephants to live," said Zheng, citing the many protections for them within the country. "There has been a baby boom among wild elephants in the country in recent years."
Zheng and a team of rangers have been monitoring the Ran Ran family of wild Asian elephants since 2016. He prefers to be called a guardian of the elephants, rather than a ranger.
"The family is very used to finding food in villages, so we must monitor them closely 24/7 to prevent conflicts between them and the villagers. If the elephants get near the road or railway, we then have to approach them and guide them away," he said.
Also, it's important to prevent the herds from migrating further north like the odyssey taken by a group of 15 elephants four years ago that caught global attention, Zheng said.
In March 2020, the Short Nose family of elephants left their home in the nature reserve in Xishuangbanna. They headed northward and roamed all the way to the provincial capital of Kunming before returning home on Aug 12, 2021. As they crashed into people's houses, munched on their crops and guzzled their water along the journey of more than 1,300 km, an emergency task force was set up, marshaling a cast of thousands to guide the elephants away from villages and cities.
"It remains a mystery as to why the herd migrated so far in 2020, and it may happen again so we must be prepared," Zheng said.
An adult Asian elephant consumes about 150 kilograms of food each day, and a herd of elephants can easily devour an entire field of crops in one sitting. To reduce losses, Xishuangbanna launched a wild animal accident public liability insurance plan in 2011.
As of July, more than 215 million yuan ($30.2 million) has been paid to villagers for damage to their agricultural products caused by wild animals. A total of 87 percent of the payouts have been made to cover the losses caused by Asian elephants. More than 37,400 insurance claims for wild animal-related incidents were made between 2021 and 2023 in Xishuangbanna, according to provincial authorities.
Tao said: "Last October, wild elephants ate 0.27 hectares of corn that I had grown. I received 3,000 yuan in compensation."
Since 2022, the compensation standards for agricultural products, including corn, rice and sugarcane have been raised as their market values have increased. "I could have made more than 6,000 yuan from selling that corn, so the villagers still wish the compensation standards can be further lifted," said Tao.
A ranger prepares a drone for a monitoring task. CHINA DAILY
There are many videos of wild elephants feasting on farmland crops on Lyu Kebo's cellphone. As an insurance specialist from China Pacific Property Insurance's Xishuangbanna branch, Lyu often has to inspect the aftermath of the farmland destroyed by the elephants to determine the exact economic losses.
"It's easy to tell the work of the wild elephants because nothing is left standing in the field after their visit. No people or other animals can cause such damage," Lyu said.
He added that because of the warning systems, there have rarely been any incidents of elephants attacking people causing injuries or even death.
Since Feb 23, protocols on restoring the Asian elephants' habitats, elephant rescue, reintroducing rescued elephants to the wild, and the construction of the warning system have been introduced in Yunnan.
These protocols can offer technical support for better protecting Asian elephants and further increasing their population in China, said Chen Fei, director of the Asian Elephant Research Center of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.
To enhance the protection of Asian elephants, Yunnan is pushing for the construction of a national park for them in 2022, Chen said.
According to a plan for the national park, the primary objectives are to protect the area's tropical rainforests, enhance conservation efforts for the Asian elephant population and their habitats, and mitigate conflicts between humans and elephants.
"Unlike other wild animals, the elephants need a complex ecosystem consisting of the rainforest and farmland because they are so used to living around villages and people. How we can ensure harmonious coexistence between humans and the Asian elephants will always be an issue," Chen said.
