The elephants walk along a road in Eshan, Yunnan province.
The elephants walk along a road in Eshan, Yunnan province.
A herd of escaped elephants which have already caused nearly $2m worth of destruction could be about to descend on a Chinese city of 8 million people.
The 15 elephants journeyed 500km across the southwest province of Yunnan, getting inebriated after gaining access to alcohol at a villager's home, stomping on fields and destroying barns.
A team of drones and 360 trackers have been deployed to stop the herd from reaching the state's capital Kunming - but as of yet the elephants have been too cunning to be captured.
Experts say the incident is the longest migration of elephants ever recorded in China.
Chen Mingyong, an Asian elephant specialist, told Xinhua that the matriarch of the group is likely to be lacking in "experience and led the whole group astray".
In this aerial photo file photo taken on May 28, and released by China's Xinhua News Agency, a herd of wild Asian elephants stands in E'shan county in southwestern China's Yunnan Province. Photo / AP
Fire trucks currently block roads leading into Kunming - just a few kilometres away from the elephants.
Residential areas on their course have been evacuated and 18 tonnes of food deposited to divert them from populated areas. Officials are hoping the food will guide them away from the 20km walk to the city's downtown.
The province of Yunnan is the sole habitat of wild Asian elephants in China. There are nature reserves scattered across the state, but experts say a decline in edible plants could have encouraged the group to leave their habitat in Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve.
A total of 17 elephants left Xishuangbanna in China's mountainous southwest last year, but two returned home safely and a baby was born during the journey.
Observers have urged local officials to track the movement of elephants carefully in order to quickly evacuate areas and block roads more effectively.
Since mid-April, the elephants have wrecked around 56ha of crops. Residents were warned to hide indoors as the elephants roamed across the town of Eshan for six hours last week.
Conflict can quickly develop between locals and herds, but as of yet there are no reports of any aggressive incidents.
Forests have been cut back in the past 20 years to make way for rubber and tea plantations, leaving behind fragmentary landscapes that can confuse elephants.
The Asian elephant, which is included on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species as "endangered", enjoys Class-A protection in China, the same level as that of the giant panda.
Officials prepare a drone to monitor a herd of wild Asian elephants in E'shan county in southwestern China's Yunnan Province. Photo / AP
Yunnan began establishing national and regional level reserves in the 1960s. Despite this a number of factors, including illegal hunting and a surging human population encroaching on their territory, threatened the species before the 1970s. Their numbers rapidly dropped to concerning levels.
But the Asian elephant population in China increased from 170 in the 1970s to 300, thanks to a more comprehensive effort to protect the species.
In December of last year, a total of 18 wild elephants were seen in a nature reserve in the Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture of Southwest China's Yunnan province.
It was the first time elephants had been spotted in the Menglun subsidiary nature reserve for over 40 years, according to reports.
