Lin Hao was shocked when he looked at the exhibition.

He had never heard of so many people being trampled to death by elephants.

It was thought that predators such as tigers and bears might be more dangerous, but the accidents seem to be in the circus and zoo. Now I haven''t heard that anyone was bitten to death by a tiger in the wild. Instead, it is the gentle giant in the impression of elephant, who has such a ferocious side.

Put yourself in his shoes. If a wall near his house can''t stop it and a giant that can trample people flat with one foot, he often comes to the field to see if there is anything to eat. He must be worried when he sleeps at night.

Why is the conflict between elephants and people so fierce that it can even be described as tragic? Is it because there are too many elephants and there is not enough food to eat human crops? Is there any solution?

With this question, continue to look down!

At that meeting in 1999, Professor Zhang, an authority on elephant research in China, just started to do a domestic elephant survey to study their number, distribution and habits.

The number of elephants is hard to count!

They don''t have the concept of border. They may eat at home in the morning and go to Laos in the afternoon. Researchers can''t cross the border casually. They can only use stupid methods to ask the situation in the village and make statistics one village by one.

Ask if there are 5 elephants in this village. Go to a village a kilometer or two away and ask if there are 10 elephants. The number of elephants can not be simply superimposed. It is still unclear how many there are. Later, according to the outline of elephant ears, the shape of ivory and the identification of individuals one by one, each elephant was given a name to distinguish the families of different elephants.

I visited all the places where elephants were distributed in history. In this way, after 20 years of efforts, I gradually counted the number of elephant groups.

The number of wild Asian elephants found in China is less than 250!

In domestic zoos, there are 300 Asian elephants in captivity.

Lin Hao stared: "surprised!"

The number of African elephants is recorded in hundreds of thousands. I thought there were thousands of elephants in China instead of tens of thousands?

I really don''t understand. There are only 200 elephants. Yunnan is also the place with the best environment and the thickest forests in China. What''s not enough for a large forest? Why do you have so many conflicts with people?

In recent years, the number of casualties and economic losses caused by elephants have increased every year.

The reason for the conflict is that the habitat is compressed.

Although the trees look lush and lush from the sky, and even the forest coverage is increasing, in fact, many are rubber forests.

As an important industrial raw material, rubber was introduced into China in the 1960s and planted from scratch. Referring to the statistical bulletin of national economic and social development of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture and Yunnan statistical yearbook, the official statistical areas of rubber forests in Xishuangbanna in 1990, 2000, 2000, 2010 and 2014 were 85000 hectares, 13200 hectares, 2713 hectares and 337200 hectares respectively, The remote sensing monitoring area in 14 years is larger than the statistics, up to 37.66 hectares.

The area of Xishuangbanna is only 191 hectares, and one quarter of the area is planted with rubber forests.

Although the rubber forest is also a tree, elephants don''t like to eat, and other animals don''t like to eat. There may be hundreds of plants in the same tropical rain forest. The rubber forest is just a plant, so it is also called green desert. Just looking green, there is no species diversity.

The area is gradually increasing, not only rubber forest, but also cash crops such as tea and bananas, as well as farming.

Pu''er City was actually called Simao. Later, it was renamed Pu''er because the Pu''er tea produced was too famous.

After 2000, the price of rubber soared, and people basically planted rubber where they could.

Plant rubber trees, and even break through the areas suitable for rubber growth. Rubber is suitable to grow at an altitude of 900 meters. At that time, it was planted at an altitude of 1500 meters.

Rubber has grown for ten years, but it is still a small tree, which can not be cut, and a large area of tropical and subtropical vegetation has been destroyed.

At an altitude of 900 meters, which is suitable for rubber growth, it is also a favorite area for Asian elephants.

Now Xishuangbanna is the most suitable habitat for Asian elephants, with an area of less than 5%.

It was not until 15 years that people stopped growing rubber because of the excessive planting and the rapid decline in the price of raw materials.

However, in recent years, because the price of tea has risen sharply, it has begun to cut down tree species of tea again.

The government began to take control after 13 years and can''t cut down trees casually. However, the people also have a clever trick. They can cut off a circle of bark, or use toxic chemicals. When the original trees die "naturally", they can grow cash crops.

There is money to grow cash crops, but there is no money to protect the environment.

In 2002, the per capita income of farmers in the reserve was 1306 yuan, while the national per capita disposable income in that year was 6110 yuan.

Planting crops will be destroyed by elephants. Planting rubber elephants don''t like to eat and make money.

In the words of local people, people who use iPhones in cities have no right to accuse themselves of watching TV.

In the eyes of elephants, both wild plantains and ethnic crops grow naturally. There is no one to belong to. There is only the difference between eating and not eating.

Human beings pay sweat, hard to grow crops, in their view, is just something to eat.

When there are fewer and fewer vegetation suitable for survival in the habitat, elephants will naturally choose to go to villages and eat crops, while people want to protect their property, and conflicts will naturally arise.

After reading the reasons behind the conflict, Lin Hao couldn''t say what he wanted to say. Finally, he sighed depressed!

The conflict between man and elephant is still very complex.

People over there should be accused of damaging the environment. They are suffering from elephants. Is it wrong to pursue a better life? Is it wrong to want to watch TV?

Is it wrong for elephants to eat crops? All kinds of cash crops, you don''t have to eat crops.

Is there any solution?

Another story was told on the exhibition board.

There are two local stockaded villages, one called Shangzhai and the other bo''e.

The villagers of Shangzhai are traditional Dai villages, and the common people regard elephants as mascots.

After arriving at Shangzhai, the elephant will not be disturbed. It is easy to take the ridge road through the village.

The villagers in BOE are not ethnic minorities. When elephants come, people are very nervous and beat gongs and drums to drive them away. Elephants are also afraid. They run around in the rice fields and trample on the fields.

It''s not because elephants are spiritual and know who likes themselves and who hates themselves.

Elephants have their own migration channels. As long as no one interferes, they will go their own way. On the contrary, it scares it and causes greater losses.

People''s attitude towards elephants also affects elephants'' attitude towards people.