บท 3: Chapter 569: Is Aspiring for a Better Life Wrong?
Lin Hao looked at the display, shocked to his core.
He had never heard of so many people being killed by elephants.
Initially, he thought predators like tigers and bears might be more dangerous, but those incidents seemed to happen in circuses or zoos. He had never heard of someone being killed by a tiger in the wild before. Instead, it was elephants, these gentle giants in his impression, that had such a brutal side.
Putting himself in their shoes, if there was a massive creature near his home, one that walls couldn't stop and could flatten a person with one foot, frequently visiting the fields looking for something to eat, he'd probably be living in fear every night.
Why are conflicts between elephants and humans so intense, even to the point of being described as tragic? Is it because there are too many elephants, or is there not enough food, forcing them to eat crops grown by humans? Is there any solution?
With these questions in mind, he continued to read.
In 1999, Professor Zhang, a domestic authority on elephants, began conducting surveys on them, researching their numbers, distribution, and habits.
Counting elephants is a challenge!
They have no concept of borders, possibly feeding within the country in the morning and then moving to Laos in the afternoon. Researchers can't simply cross borders at will; the only option is the cumbersome method of going from village to village to gather information.
Asking one village, they say there are five elephants, then going a couple of kilometers to another village, they say there are ten elephants. The number of elephants can't be simply added up; it still wasn't clear how many there were. Later on, by identifying individual elephants by the outline of their ears, the shape of their tusks, naming each elephant, and distinguishing different elephant families was possible.
After covering all areas historically known to have elephants, this approach slowly provided an estimate of the elephant population over 20 years.
It was discovered there are less than 250 wild Asian elephants in China!
And domestically, zoos house about 300 captive Asian elephants.
Lin Hao's eyes widened, "Shocked!"
With African elephant numbers recorded in the hundreds of thousands, he originally thought there would be at least a few thousand, if not thousands, of elephants domestically.
He really couldn't understand; with just 200 elephants, Yunnan is considered the region with the best environment and the densest forests in the country, right? With such extensive forests, what could possibly go wrong? Why are there so many conflicts with humans?
In recent years, the number of casualties and economic losses caused by elephants has been increasing.
The cause of the conflict lies in habitat compression.
Although from above, the trees seem lush and green, even with an increasing forest coverage rate, many are actually rubber plantations.
Since its introduction into China in the 1960s, rubber, an important industrial raw material, has been grown from scratch. According to the "Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture National Economic and Social Development Statistical Bulletin" and the "Yunnan Statistical Yearbook," the official statistics for rubber plantation areas in Xishuangbanna in 1990, 2000, 2000, 2010, and 2014 were 85,000, 132,000, 271,300, 337,200, and 376,600 hectares respectively. In 2014, satellite monitoring showed an area larger than the statistics, reaching 37.66 hectares.
Xishuangbanna's area is only 191 hectares, with four to five of it cultivated with rubber plantations.
Rubber trees, although also trees, are not favored by elephants for eating, nor by other animals. The same tropical rainforest might have hundreds of plant species, but rubber plantations have only rubber trees, hence, they're also called green deserts. Looking green doesn't imply biodiversity.
Areas gradually increasing in size are not only rubber plantations but also economic crops such as tea and bananas, and farmland.
Pu'er, originally called Simao, was renamed after the famous Pu'er tea produced there.
After 2000, with the price of rubber soaring, locals planted rubber wherever they could.
Rubber trees, even crossing the suitable altitude for growth, are supposed to thrive below 900 meters but were planted up to 1500 meters.
Rubber trees, still small after ten years and not ready for tapping, led to a significant destruction of tropical and subtropical vegetation.
The altitude suitable for rubber growth, below 900 meters, is also the favorite area for Asian elephants.
Now, less than 5% of Xishuangbanna's land is suitable for the survival of Asian elephants.
Until 2015, due to overplanting and the plummeting price of raw materials, locals stopped planting rubber.
However, in recent years, with the sharp increase in tea prices, trees are being cut down to plant tea leaves again.
The government started regulating in 2013, prohibiting indiscriminate felling of trees. However, locals have found a workaround by girdling trees or using toxic chemicals to "naturally" kill the original forests, making it possible to plant economic crops.
Growing economic crops is profitable, but protecting the environment isn't.
In 2002, the average income of conservation area farmers was 1306 yuan, while the national average disposable income was 6110 yuan.
Growing crops leads to elephant destruction, but growing rubber, which elephants don't eat, is profitable.
In the words of the locals, what right do people using iPhones in cities have to criticize one's choices and lifestyle?
In the eyes of elephants, whether it's wild bananas or human-grown crops, all are naturally occurring with no ownership, just whether it's edible or not.
The painstakingly cultivated crops by humans, in their view, are just food.
As the habitat suitable for living continues to shrink, elephants naturally opt for villages, eating crops more often, leading to inevitable conflicts as the locals defend their property.
After understanding the reasons behind the conflict, Lin Hao wanted to say something but couldn't. He ended up sighingly morosely.
The issue of human-elephant conflict is indeed complex.
Blaming the locals for destroying the environment seems unfair, as they suffer greatly from elephants. Is aspiring for a better life or watching TV wrong?
Is it wrong for elephants to eat crops? With all economic crops around, it's inevitable they'll eat them.
Is there any solution?
The exhibit tells another story.
There were two villages, one called Upper Village, the other Boe.
Upper Village, a traditional Dai village, sees elephants as auspicious animals.
When elephants arrive at Upper Village, they face no disturbances and easily pass through along the ridges and paths.
Boe's villagers, not from ethnic minorities, grow anxious when elephants visit, using gongs and drums to chase them away. Frightened elephants run wildly in the rice fields, damaging them.
It's not because elephants have spiritual senses, knowing who likes or dislikes them.
Elephants traditionally have their migration routes, and as long as there's no disturbance, they stick to their path. Scaring them causes even greater damage.
People's attitudes toward elephants also influence how elephants perceive humans.
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