Hungry elephants killed foraging for food in South: NGO

PRACHUAP KHIRI KHAN — The body of an elephant found in a pineapple field is the latest in a series of pachyderms killed after they wandered across national park boundaries to forage on farmland, an environmentalist said Thursday.
After a 10-year-old bull with 30-centimeter tusks was found dead in the Kui Buri National Park, the president of an elephant conservation group said at least six have been slain since 2011, with two killed this year alone.

“This will keep happening because there are still elephants in the forest, and the criminals have not been arrested. People and elephants are fighting over land to this very day,” said Laitongrian Meephan of the Phra Kachaban Foundation.

Wild elephants are a persistent nuisance to farmers, who deploy everything from electrified fences to defensive beehives to keep them off their land. From time to time, the animals are shot dead.

The elephant’s body was found last night in Boonlert Ngamdee’s pineapple field near in the Sam Roi Yot district of Prachuap Khiri Khan province. It had been dead for at least 48 hours. There were signs of a struggle as well as a 8-centimeter wound along his left thigh.

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