A senior official from the National Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation Department stated today that GPS collars for elephants have been useful in allowing officials to be aware when the animals leave national parks and go into areas where people live.
Supagit Vinitpornsawan clarified that some people mistakenly think the collars stop elephants from leaving their habitats and going into agricultural areas to eat crops, but they actually only provide location monitoring.
The initiative to equip elephants with GPS collars began in 2018, with the hope that the technology would keep the animals from exiting the national parks.
“The collars allow us to monitor their location,” said Supagit, who heads a help center for people impacted by wildlife encounters. “When they move into areas where people live, we are immediately informed and can send a team to guide them back,” he explained.
Additionally, when elephants enter people’s plantations and consume crops, locals were curious why officials took a long time to respond.
“We have a limited number of officials, and there are many areas from which the elephants break out,” he said.
The director was being interviewed on Thai National Elephants Day today.
