China deployed trucks on a large scale to prevent the advance of a group of wild elephants. They are more than 500 kilometers from their homeland and are now causing havoc near the city of Kunming, where more than eight million people live.
State television showed pictures of a long line of trucks parked on a road in a wooded area. For example, the fifteen large animals should be kept away from densely populated areas. “We are here to stop the elephants,” one driver told CCTV. “The traffic police said they needed trucks.”
Elephants have already left a trail of devastation in small communities. There they passed people’s gardens and knocked on trees. “The herd was walking around the village all day,” said one nervous villager. “We went out and saw an elephant about three meters high. We thought it was terrifying.”
The authorities sent thousands of people to monitor the animals. They use drones and infrared cameras. It is still not clear why the animals left their nature reserve in Yunnan Province. Their journey is closely followed on Chinese social media and there is also a lot of speculation as to why the elephants travel.
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