Fifteen wild elephants continue their particular journey through the towns of the area - they have already been over 500 kilometers - to the amazement of locals, authorities, specialists and Internet users. The pachyderms, native to the Xishuangbanna region, known for its rainforest and monsoon climate, migrated north of the province in late May without an apparent explanation. During their journey, the elephants have walked through various towns under the watchful eye of villagers and authorities, who have evacuated roads to facilitate their passage and used food as bait in order to attract their appetite and prevent them from entering densely populated areas.
State media report that the population of wild Asian elephants living in Yunnan province is 300 by 193 in 1980, which has not prevented speculation about whether or not their migration is due to human activity. The researcher Pan Wenjing, deputy director of the Greenpeace East Asia Forestry and Ocean Unit, tells Efe in a telephone conversation from Yunnan that "it is very difficult to know the exact reason" for a migration of this magnitude, although it affects that "the loss of their habitat poses a great challenge ”for the protection of Asian elephants in China. "It is true that the Asian elephant population has increased in recent years, but that is mainly due to the disappearance of poaching in the area. However,the surface of natural forests has decreased as a consequence of the expansion of human activity ”, he comments.