On March 20, 2020, a group of 16 Asian elephants left their home in the Xishuangbanna reserve, close to Laos and Myanmar, and headed north. Along the way, a female went into labor , so the animals made a stop in the forests of Pu’er, 80 km from the reserve, which lasted five months. After this they started walking again, but two elephants decided to go home.
The animals have already traveled more than 500 km . On their particular excursion they have eaten whole cornfields, smashed barns and razed farmlands. They have been seen walking on roads and crossing some villages.
The herd has become a viral phenomenon in China , their journey can be followed live and they are known as the “drunken elephants” . The name is very relevant and it is that, on this journey, the animals have entered a liquor factory . In fact, one of them got drunk eating fermented grain. They also went into a dealership and drank 2000 liters of water .
The anecdote may be funny at first, but there are those who have lost their harvest or regret significant material damage. The damage and damage caused by the herd already amounts to one million euros.
The “drunken elephants” are protected, in fact they are Asian elephants, currently in danger of extinction . To avoid incidents, a team of experts closely follows the herd using drones, feeding them away from populated areas and using vehicles to prevent the animals from entering the villages.
The experts are not very clear about the reason for this very long migration to the north. Some point out that the elephant leading the retinue may not have much experience and may have taken the wrong route . Others claim that the trip may be motivated by the decline in the plants they eat in forest areas. This motive is recurrent since it is not the first time that the pachyderms of the Xishuangbanna reserve have left their home due to not having enough food in the jungle and reach the villages themselves. What had never happened is that they went so far north, so far.
At the moment, there have been no incidents with injuries or deaths to regret, which has happened on other occasions.
