The fact that two elephants were killed in the Yok Don National Park has once again raised the worries about the safety of the wild elephants in Vietnam. Scientists have urged to take actions to protect wildlife, or it would be too late.
On August 25, forest rangers detected the dead bodies of two elephants that were only 5 meters from each other in the Yok Don National Park. The bodies were being decomposed.
The information has stunned the public, though these were not the first elephants killed in Vietnam.
Huynh Trung Luan, Director of the Elephant Conservation Center, an arm of the Dak Lak provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said in the first eight months of 2012, five wild elephants were dead, including three elephants reaching the adulthood which were killed, and the other two, whose death reason is still unclear.
The death of the another two elephants in the national park on August 25 has raised the alarming bell over the existence of the remaining elephants. Once the remaining adult elephant in the flock dies, the elephant population structure in Yok Don would be no more sustainable.
At present, the wild flock of elephants has been in the state of panic and they have become very furious, which has made the conflict between humans and elephants more serious.
Do Trong Kim, Deputy Head of the Forest Ranger Agency under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has guessed that the two dead elephants belonged to the wild population comprising of 30 individuals who have been traveling between Mondulkiri province in Cambodia and Ea Sup and Yok Don National Park in Vietnam.
However, Kim said it’s impossible to say exactly how many individuals of the flock still survive, because elephants move regularly.
Prior to that, during the wild elephant monitoring in late March 2012, the Dak Lak Elephant Conservation Center also discovered three wild elephants dead in the forest area belonging to Ea Sup district. One of the two was an adult elephant weighing two tons.
Any time when the elephants were found dead, relevant agencies hurried to trace the culprits. A lot of elephant killers were arrested, but more and more wildlife still have been killed.
Elephant dead bodies will not be put into museum
Competent agencies some days ago said after the site investigation finishes, the two elephant dead bodies would be carried to the Vietnam Museum of the Nature.
However, lately, officials have said that since the elephants died 10 days before they were found, and the bodies were being decomposed, the initial plan would be reconsidered.
Dr Pham Van Luc, Director of the museum, has affirmed that the dead bodies do not have scientific value any more.
Luc said that scientists would have to experience a very painstaking process to create an elephant sample, and that the work can be done only if the dead bodies had been kept intact, and the tusks had not been cut.
Therefore, according to Luc, with the current status of the bodies, the only choice for now is to bury them and excavate after two years to get the skeleton.
Luc has also expressed his worry about the death of the two elephants. “If the poaching continues, the next generations would be able to see wildlife in museums,” he said.