Human-elephant conflict escalates in China's Xishuangbanna

Deaths and damage rise as shrinking habitat forces animals into farms and settlements

20201019 China elephants AP_561292674993 Caixin

Wild elephants bathe in a river in Xishuangbanna. The animals tend to avoid humans but will attack if threatened. © AP

KANG JIA and HAN WEI, Caixin

October 20, 2020 21:47 JST

Xishuangbanna, the southernmost prefecture in China's Yunnan Province, is known as a safe haven for wild Asian elephants where hundreds of the giant animals live in the sprawling tropical rainforests.

But balancing modern human activities with protection of wildlife has never been easy. For some people in Xishuangbanna, coexistence with the wild elephants is becoming more and more challenging, and sometimes even fatal.