China's migrating elephants head further south

KUNMING - The herd of 14 wandering wild Asian elephants in Southwest China's Yunnan province headed further south in Eshan county, authorities said on Thursday.

They traveled 23 km south between 6 pm on Wednesday and the same time on Thursday.

A male elephant, which strayed 19 days ago, is now 35.8 km away in Jinning district in Kunming, the provincial capital.

The animals have traveled about 500 km north from their forest home in southern Yunnan's Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture, reaching Kunming on June 2.

For over a month, authorities have sent police to escort the herd, evacuated roads to facilitate their passage, and used food to distract them from entering densely populated areas.

On Thursday, 151 people were mobilized for the work, 2,327 residents were evacuated, and 400 kg food and 2 kg salt were provided to the elephants.

Asian elephants are primarily found in Yunnan and are under A-level state protection in China. Thanks to enhanced protection efforts, the wild elephant population in the province grew to about 300, up from 193 in the 1980s.