Herd mentality: Thai activists stomp on elephant birth control plan
Conservationists gathered yesterday to oppose the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment’s proposal to administer birth control injections to wild elephants. The Soo Phua Chang Network, advocating for elephants, convened at the ministry, urging a delay in the plan until comprehensive studies and reviews of the contraceptive injections are completed.
They presented their petition to Minister Chalermchai Sri-on, and Naraphat Kaewthong, the vice minister, who accepted it. The ministry had previously instructed the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) to assess the effectiveness of these injections on female elephants as part of a project to manage the wild elephant population.
Previously, the department, in collaboration with the Centre for Elephant and Wildlife Health at Chiang Mai University, conducted a similar study, indicating contraceptive effects for up to seven years. Andaman Adana, a network member, argued that research into the efficacy of these injections on wild elephants remains incomplete, as the drug is still under examination.
Andaman suggested that the department should wait until the trial phase concludes to observe its effects before implementing the injections on a larger scale, noting this process might take up to seven years. He expressed concerns about how the department would effectively monitor the birth control injections’ efficacy during the trial period, given the elephants’ free-ranging nature in the forests.
Pattharapol Manee-on, chief of the Wildlife Health Management Department at the DNP, later met with the protesters to address their concerns. Chalermchai previously stated that Thailand has an estimated 4,000 wild elephants, with an annual birth rate increase of 7 to 8%.
The population is projected to reach at least 6,000 within the next four years, which does not align with the decreasing forest areas.
The department is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the matter today at the Royal Forest Department, focusing on forest-dwelling elephants in five eastern provinces. The results will be shared with the Centre for Elephant and Wildlife Health, reported Bangkok Post.
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