The number of wild elephants is on the rise, which is certainly a good thing, but they pillage or trample crops, tear down trees and houses and are a very real threat to people's lives.
Simao forestry bureau attributed 33 deaths and 165 injuries to wild animals, mostly elephants, from 1991 to 2010. In the whole province, 1,324 deaths and about 390 million yuan (63.7 million U.S. dollars) of losses have been blamed on wild animals over the past decade. Such tragedies will become more frequent if the central government campaign to improve the environment is successful and elephant numbers increase.
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An adult elephant eats up to 300 kilograms of food each day and drinks a large amount of water. It walks dozens of kilometers while foraging.
Chen Mingyong, an elephant expert with Yunnan University, believes that conservation corridors are key to resolving the conflict between man and beast. Linking the fragmented habitat with protected corridors will reduce the overlapping space inhabited by both humans and elephants.
Food source bases where bamboo and bananas are grown specifically for the elephants will also help. Most of the harm done comes from the elephants' endless search for food.
Simao government spent over 600,000 yuan last year on an "elephant canteen" that includes a banana garden, a bamboo forest and a pool. The provincial government faces mounting compensation bills for damage caused by the protected animals. The annual cost can run to 10 million yuan.
In 2009, Yunnan contracted China Pacific Insurance Co. to insure crops, property and lives in some regions. The government pays the premiums and the insurers investigate and compensate people when animals cause trouble.
Li Laoxiao has tried everything to drive the elephants away from his plantation, but to very little avail. "Now I just let them eat. I get 15 yuan for each damaged rubber tree, and 10 yuan for a banana tree."
The commercial mechanism is clearly more effective. Compensation is higher and paid more quickly, but rumbling discontent persists. In November, 114 villagers from nine villages in Simao petitioned for better protection and higher compensation.
Yang Zhengrong of the insurers' Yunnan branch told Xinhua that the company paid over 81 million yuan in compensation from 2010 to 2013 but received less than 48 million yuan in premiums.
"The compensation mechanism needs to be improved. It is not sustainable in the long run," Yang said.
