Wild elephants kill 5 villagers in Myanmar’s northeast

By Kyaw Ye Lynn

YANGON, Myanmar (AA) - Five villagers have been killed by rampaging elephants in a village in Myanmar’s mountainous Shan State, authorities said Monday.

A herd of three elephants rampaged in Sint Kin village in Mong Mate Township of northeastern Shan before dawn Sunday, killing five villagers -- including a nine-year-old boy -- and destroying several houses, according to a local Forestry Department officer.

“Three women and a boy were killed by the elephants in the village,” Swe Thein told Anadolu Agency by phone Monday.

“A man was later found dead near a well outside the village,” he said, adding that the man was also killed by rampaging elephants.

Such deaths are not uncommon in rural areas in Myanmar, where deforestation has resulted in a rising number of conflicts between human residents and elephants. According to media reports, there were more than 70 such destructive encounters between wild elephants and residents from 2010-2016, leaving at least 15 people dead.

“Competition for land and food brings elephants into conflict with humans,” Swe Thein said.

Forest coverage in Myanmar -- which lost almost 20 percent of its forests between 1990 and 2010 -- fell from 58 percent of the country in 1990 to 47 percent in 2010, before dropping to 45 percent -- or under 32 million hectares -- in 2015, according to Forestry Ministry figures.

Alongside the decrease in forest coverage, the country’s wild elephant population has also been in dramatic decline throughout the past few decades due to loss of habitat and poaching for their ivory -- as well as trafficking in live pachyderms to supply tourism industries in neighboring countries.

The government estimates that there are currently around 3,000 wild elephants left in Myanmar's jungles, down from 6,000 in 1960-1970, and 4,639 recorded in a 1991 census.