Villagers on the run from restless elephants

IN A rural village in southern Burma, rampaging elephants have forced villagers to move to the trees to avoid being trampled.

The villagers of Taik Kyi, about 40 miles from Rangoon, built the tree houses when the elephants began to move into town over a decade ago.

Now, with deforestation forcing ever more beasts into the area, the locals scramble nimbly up ladders into the makeshift structures whenever they visit. U Sein Than, 50, a farmer, says it is about protection.

“The elephants run into the houses when they are looking for food. If you go near to them, they will chase you. Even if you run in a zigzag, the elephants will always stamp on you,” he said.

The villagers say 40 people have died in the area as a result of the elephants in the past eight years and two nearby villages have been abandoned.

“If three elephants come, they will destroy two acres of rice paddy,” said U Sein Than. “My farming business is like a lottery. If I cultivate 100 per cent of the rice, I will only get 30 per cent of it because of the elephants.”

In recent years conflict between elephants and humans has become more common, as deforestation has spread across the country as a result of logging, infrastructure development and clearance for crops, leaving the elephants homeless.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s government has already imposed a year-long logging ban this summer. But in Taik Kyi, the villagers fear the ban could worsen their plight.

At least 2,500 elephants work in the official logging industry and many more may be in the illegal logging industry. And now many are unemployed, and restless.

Dr Christy Williams, Burma director of the WWF, said: “The ban is very much needed, but just keeping these elephants, and their mahouts [human keepers], inactive, is not going to work. How are 2,500 elephants going to be fed if they are not working?”