Cooler heads needed to end wildlife woes

Following media reports about the killings of three rare, wild gaur in Kao Phang Ma, a forest area near Khao Yai in Wang Nam Khieo district of Nakhon Ratchasima last week, police and national park officials were quick to say poachers were the culprits.

Jumping quickly to this conclusion is understandable. Poachers can earn a lot from meat and body parts of gaur. On the internet, an old gaur horn can fetch at least 30,000 baht. Gaur meat, according to an official who is familiar with conservation in that area, is also a lucrative business for poachers.

But threats to gaur in wild forests are not limited to just poaching and trafficking. One of the three gaur was killed by a tapioca farm owner because the animal was foraging in his fields.

The case mirrors existing conflicts between wild animals and local people living next to national parks or wildlife sanctuaries. Reports of wildlife such as elephants and gaur being killed or harmed by villagers are nothing new. Over the past decade, there have been similar cases as land in forest areas has increasingly been turned into plantations for the mass cultivation of crops such as corn, tapioca, banana and pineapple.

Since then, many wild animals, especially elephants, have been reported to have been shot (and several of them killed), or even electrocuted by electric fences put up by villagers as a means to protect their farms and properties. The trend continued this week. After the killings of the three gaur last week, there were two reports on Monday of elephants foraging in farms in Nakhon Ratchasima’s Khon Buri district where enraged villagers lit firecrackers to chase an elephant out of their tapioca farms.

On the same day, another pachyderm gulping pineapple plants went berserk after villagers used firecrackers to scare and chase the animal from their fields.

The case, however, ended tragically as the elephant ran amok and stomped on a forest park ranger who tried to subdue the jumbo. The forest ranger died shortly afterwards.

The question remains as to what measures authorities should apply as a solution to this kind of conflict. Putting up warning signs may work for humans but not for animals.

Persuading villagers to stop growing crops is equally wishful thinking. Both measures, in my opinion, are not sustainable and will make the relationship between humans and wildlife turn even more sour, resulting in bloody clashes and perhaps deaths.

But there are solutions. And a good case in point is the “Kui Buri model”, a project run by the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE).

More than two decades ago, locals who grew pineapples on land surrounding a degraded forest in Prachuap Khiri Khan’s Kui Buri district often waged war with wild elephants from the forest who liked to forage on their fields and eat their crops. A number of jumbos were killed, mostly after being electrocuted. The DNP later decided to list the forest as Kui Buri National Park and launched safari tours. The department also hired local people including a few former wildlife hunters to plan and run the tours, helping them to earn extra income.

To solve the problem of foraging by elephants, the DNP followed the advice of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej by turning 12,000 rai of park land into grass prairie where gaur and elephants can munch freely and safely.

The Kui Buri National Park has become a famous tourist destination and a source of income for local people. The DNP plans to propose listing it as a Unesco World Heritage site.

So you might wonder what the authorities plan to do following the latest deaths of the three gaur. Luckily, a cool head has prevailed. Nakhon Ratchasima governor Wichian Chantharanothai has come up with a policy to offer compensation to villagers for damage caused by gaur.

Over the long term, the governor and the MNRE plan to relocate the remaining 300 gaur in the Khao Phang Ma forest to the Phu Luang forest located eight kilometres away.

The relocation will require the creation of an eight-kilometre wildlife corridor with edible plants and grass grown to attract the gaur to the new sanctuary.

The governor has a good reason to do it. Gaur spotting has become a major tourist draw in Khao Phang Ma.

I hope the governor’s plan materialises as it will set an example for other places which experience similar conflicts to follow suit, or at least to try to think about a new solution.