NAKHON RATCHASIMA: Farmers' annual battle against raiding wild elephants began a month early this year in Khon Buri district, with the animals leaving the nearby national park to raid fields that have yet to be harvested.
About 50 defence volunteers, local officials and soldiers are now being deployed nightly in Ban Map Krad of tambon Khok Krachai to protect crops from about 10 wild elephants that wreaked havoc in the fields last week.
Somchai Yudkrathok, chief of tambon Khok Krachai, said on Monday that elephants from the adjacent Thap Lan National Park invade farms there every year, but they usually arrive in July, when the harvest is over. This year they began their depredations in June.
Farmers have not brought in their crops yet, so a strong defence is necessary to minimize their losses, he said.
Officials and volunteers were guarding the trails from the national park most frequently used by the elephants in their nightly excursions onto nearby farmland. They try to discourage them and ensure they stay in the park.They were all skilled enough at the work to ensure no lives were lost, Mr Somchai said.
In their most recent night foray, the elephants severely damaged a 5-rai banana orchard two kilometres outside Thap Lan National Park. Cassava and other crops at about 10 farms that stood in their way from the park to the bananas were also raided.
