AR-News: (Hanoi, Vietnam) Central highlands: elephant population declining

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_http://www.vnagency.com.vn/NewsA.asp?LANGUAGE_ID=2&CATEGORY_ID=32&NEWS_ID=107
207_ 
(http://www.vnagency.com.vn/NewsA.asp?LANGUAGE_ID=2&CATEGORY_ID=32&NEWS_ID=107207)  

VNA

 
 07/05/2004


Dac Lac, July 5 (VNA) - Central  highlands Dac Lac province's authorities are 
concerned that its tame and wild  elephant populations are declining  
seriously. 
According to the provincial ranger department's  latest survey, the tame 
elephant herd has been halved to just 62 animals,  including 19 males and 43 
females, compared with the 1997  figure. 
The wild elephant population in the province,  which is said to be home to 
the largest number of elephants in the country, has  faced a ten-fold drop 
between 1979 and 2004, from 400-500 elephants to 40-50 at  present. 
They are now found living concentrated in an area  along the Viet 
Nam-Cambodia common border, mainly in Easup, Buon Don districts  in Dac Lac province and 
Cu Jut, Dac Min, Dac Lap districts in Dac Nong province,  and in an area on  
the foot of Chu  Jang Sin mountain stretching over Lac, Krong Bong, and Ma 
D'rac  districts. 
The ranger department said the serious decline in  both tame and wild 
elephant population was mainly attributed to illegal hunting  for elephant's hide, 
bones and tusks and elephant's shrunk habitat because  ethnic people clear 
forests for farming  land.-Enditem 






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