City elephants get park in Surin

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Thai city elephants get park in Surin 
Bangkok Post: 11 Sep 2009
www.BangkokPost.com

City elephants get park in Surin

Surin is to be home to a new elephant park to shelter jumbos rescued from city streets.

A number of elephants have died or been seriously injured in accidents in Bangkok and other cities after being hit by cars, falling into potholes or suffering an electrical shock.

In the latest bid to solve the seemingly insurmountable problem, the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry will set up an elephant shelter on 6,000 rai owned by the Royal Forest Department and the Forestry Industry Organisation, permanent secretary Saksit Tridech said yesterday.

Initially, about 100 stray elephants were expected to be relocated to the shelter, which could become another tourist attraction in Surin, dubbed "elephant city" because of the number of captive elephants in the province.

"We are going to invite all related parties such as the Interior Ministry and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and elephant owners to discuss how to operate the shelter in a way that will help solve the elephant problem," Mr Saksit said.

The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation believes there are about 2,000 elephants living in the wild and about 3,000 in captivity.

Officials estimate about half of the captive elephants have been forced to roam city streets and tourists sites at some stage.

Mattana Srikrachang, the wildlife department's elephant expert, said more needed to be done to stop elephant owners from bringing the animals into the major cities and putting their lives at risk. That included overhauling the captive elephant registration system so the authorities could get an accurate count of the number of captive elephants as well as information about their ownership and working places.

The data would help authorities come up with effective plans to manage and protect the elephants from danger.