Wild elephants ‘rob’ trucks of sugar cane
Bangkok (AP) - The chief of Khao Ang Rue Nai wants the road through the wildlife sanctuary closed at night after a herd of elephants held up and looted a string of cargo trucks. About midnight last Saturday (the 13rd) a herd of 20 elephants blocked route No.3259 (the Ban Nong Kog-Ban Wang Nam Phon road) holding up 10 trucks, Yoo Senatham said.
They tipped some vehicles on their side, spilling the cargoes on the road so their young could eat, and gorged on sugarcane and tapioca.
The difficulty of finding food during the dry season has driven a group of wild elephants from Chachoengsao’s Khao Ang Rue-Nai Wildlife Sanctuary to resort to snatching sugar cane and tapioca from passing trucks, a local forestry official said Saturday.
This, combined with a record of 14,000 animals being run over each year by vehicles using the 14.7-kilometre stretch - which cuts through the sanctuary where it overlaps the borders of Chachoengsao, Chon Buri, Rayong, Chanthaburi and Prachin Buri provinces - has prompted officers to propose shutting the road at night.
