Dak Lak: elephant – human conflicts VietNamNet Bridge – The conflict between the humans and elephants has lasted for decades in the Central Highlands. But now it has reached the peak when wild elephants have been driven angry and continuously destroyed the crops. Some innocent people were killed by elephants. The latest case happened on October 27. When elephants get angry This elephant was killed in early 2011. Several days have passed but Mr. Cao Xuan Chien and Mr. Cao Xuan Dong, residents of Ea Le commune, Ea Sup district, Dak Lak province, who were very lucky to escape from angry elephants, could not regain their calm yet when they recalled their clash with wild elephants on the night of October 27. The two men were lucky to avoid the lashes of elephants but their friend, Mr. Cao Quang Canh, 42, a policeman of Ea Le commune, died, leaving behind his wife and two young children. At 8pm on October 27, Canh and three friends entered the local forest to seek wild yellow apricot trees for the upcoming lunar New Year. At the sub-zone 276, they encountered a herd of about 20 elephants, which were seeking food. Seeing the humans, the elephants roared and attacked these people. Canh was very near to the elephants so he could not quickly run away and was killed by elephants. The two others were lucky to escape. This is the second victim of wild elephants in Dak Lak this year. In the first case, on March 13, Mr. Tran Van Tu (born in 1975, residing in 2A village, Ea H'leo) was struck to dead by a wild elephant on his way home from the field. Why? This elephant was killed in August 2012. Before the threat of extinction of elephants, in 2005, Dak Lak province approved the wild elephant conservation project, which was listed at "urgent level." But until now, it is still on paper. Recently, the Prime Minister instructed Dak Lak to urgently upgrade this project to the national level and to raise the level of conservation to "emergency!" According to the statistics of the Dak Lak Elephant Conservation Center, there are about 10 herds of wild elephants, with more than 100 individuals, living in the jungles of Yok Don National Park, Buon Don, Ea Sup, Ea H'leo districts and the forest areas bordering Cambodia. Currently, the forest area in this province is being narrowed at an alarming rate due to illegal forest exploitation. Besides, natural forests are also allocated to rubber and forest planting projects, seriously affecting the living environment of elephants. As a result, wild elephants have frequently gone to residential areas to search for food and destroy the crops. Mr. Huynh Trung Luan, Director of the Dak Lak Elephant Conservation Center said, every year, people living along the forests where are the homes to elephants lost about 40-50 hectares of crops, which are destroyed by elephants. However, this is not the accurate figure. According to Luan, the herd of elephants that killed a police officer in Ea Le commune on October 27 is the one with two adult elephants being killed by hunters in August and one being killed in March 2012. That is why the elephants are very aggressive. Despite this fact, the local authorities have not had any effective plan to protect elephants as well as to protect the people. They only recommend local people from avoid going into forest at night and if elephants destroy their crops, people are not allowed to harm the animals, etc. "The wild elephants in Dak Lak are too bold to man. If they are chased, they will just leave and then return immediately," Luan said. People's lives are important, protecting wild elephants in Dak Lak from extinction is also very urgent. Yen Thanh