Officials from the Phu Luang Wildlife Sanctuary in Loei province filed a complaint with police about neighbouring villagers, accusing them of setting more than 100 elephant traps. The neighbours were alleged to have set the traps to protect their farms from elephants eating their crops. The sanctuary officials brought several of the elephant traps with them to the police as evidence.
In Thailand, the Wildlife Preservation and Protection Act bans the setting of animal traps with violators found guilty of the offence in court facing fines of up to 1 million baht and up to 10 years in prison. Green World Foundation said yesterday that they received a corroborating report that forest rangers had encountered over 100 crude elephant traps around the border of the wildlife sanctuary.
Villagers in the areas have farms where they grow sugarcane, which is a popular snack for elephants. The…
