Yesterday morning, a group of wild elephants found their way to a village in the Moe Meit district, located in northern Shan State, a police officer from the Moe Meit police force told 7Day.
Around 1 am on January 8, a family of elephants — two adults, one female and one male, and one baby — happened to wander into the village. Some of the villagers panicked and began running away, causing the elephants to think that they were under attack and fight back.
Five individuals — two men and three women — were killed, and two houses destroyed.
As of now, members of the Ministry of Forestry are making plans to release the family back into the wild in a safe location far away from any surrounding villages.
In 2015, a group of 10 elephants strayed over to the Yangon-Naypyidaw highway.
Last year, the Ministry held a workshop with various international conservation groups to address the country’s alarming increase in human and wild elephant deaths in recent years.
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