Dong Nai (VNA) – The southern province of Dong Naihas proposed measures to conserve and prevent consanguineous mating in the herdof wild elephants there.
There are 14 elephants living in an area of some53,000 hectares in Vinh Cuu, Dinh Quan and Tan Phu districts, according to theprovince’s forest protection division.
Le Viet Dung, deputy head of the division,suggested two plans to prevent consanguineous mating among the elephants. Thefirst is to ask for the Vietnam Administration of Forestry’s permission tobring some elephants in other localities to Dong Nai to mate with local ones.
The other plan is promoting internationalcooperation in the work, he said, elaborating that Dong Nai can mate itselephants with others in regional countries.
The elephant herd in Dong Nai was seen mostrecently in Thanh Son commune of Dinh Quan district in late March.
Local residents said the animals often come totheir farms to find food, destroying a large area of fruit trees such as mango,cashew, banana and sugar cane.
The forest protection division is carrying outan emergency elephant conservation project with a total cost of 85 billion VND(3.75 million USD). Accordingly, about 50km of electric fence will be built inTan Phu, Dinh Quan and Vinh Cuu districts to prevent the conflict betweenelephants and human.-VNA