The Khao Ang Rue Nai Wildlife Sanctuary () is a

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewood ...

at the western extremities of the

Cardamom Mountains The Cardamom Mountains (, ; , ), or the Krâvanh Mountains, is a mountain range in the southwest part of Cambodia and Eastern Thailand. The majority of the range is within Cambodia. The silhouette of the Cardamom Mountains appears in the Sea ...

in Chachoengsao Province,

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

. Founded in 1977, it is an IUCN Category IV wildlife sanctuary, with an area of 674,352 rai ~ . South-east of, and connected with, the wildlife sanctuary is the

Khao Sip Ha Chan National Park Khao may refer to: * Khao, Iran Khav (, also Romanized as Khāv; also known as Khāo, Khāow, and Qala Khāo) is a village in Khav and Mirabad Rural District, Khav and Mirabad District, Marivan County, Kurdistan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, ...

. South-west of the protection is the Khao Chamao–Khao Wong National Park. The sanctuary is partly covered by lowland evergreen forest, along with dry and moist evergreens, mixed deciduous, deciduous

dipterocarp Dipterocarpaceae is a family of flowering plants with 22 genera and about 695 known species of mainly lowland tropical forest trees. Their distribution is pantropical, from northern South America to Africa, the Seychelles, India, Indochina, Indo ...

, as well as grassland.

Human-elephant conflict

The Thai Department of National Parks (DNP) has estimated that in 2008 the elephant population of Khao Ang Rue Nai was just 219 animals. In recent years this number has grown by 9.83 percent per year, meaning that the reserve now has 275 or so elephants. The twenty new animals born every year exceed the death rate. Their expanding population has meant that they travel further afield in search of food. Thus the villages that border the sanctuary are subject to about 25 raids on crops per month. Due to the average crop damage of six rai per year per household, crop damage costs each household nearly 35,000

baht The baht (; , ; currency sign, sign: ฿; ISO 4217, code: THB) is the official currency of Thailand. It is divided into 100 ''satang'' (, ). Prior to decimalisation, the baht was divided into eight ''fueang'' (, ), each of eight ''at'' (, ). The ...

or 19 percent of average household income. Affected households spend an average of 212 nights awake per year guarding their fields. The DNP has resorted to various measures to reduce the conflict, including growing food crops in the forest for the animals. A spokesman for the DNP noted, on behalf of the elephants, that, "We are also encroaching into forest, making it harder for elephants, which already face limited food sources....it is our task not to invade their homes."

Source

Khao Angruenai in Thailand

References

{{Wildlife sanctuaries of Thailand Protected areas established in 1977 Wildlife sanctuaries of Thailand Cardamom Mountains IUCN Category IV 1977 establishments in Thailand