【龙湾区】Three “How”s Beneath the Asian Elephants Migration Event

金品轩 2021-07-29 18:12:42

Recent months have witnessed an increasing attention and affection received by a herd of northward elephants in China, both at home and abroad. In the beginning of June, a video of 15 wild Asian elephants cuddling against each other and taking a group nap in the shadow of the dense forest went viral on Twitter, gathering approximately 400,000 views and 12,000 likes. However, when we look beneath the surface of this migration, there are three “how”s waiting to be answered.

How does the migration occur? According to some scientists, it is assumed to be the result of a recent elephant population boom and the consequently expanding territory need. Therefore, this group of animals left their tropical forest home and trekked through Yunnan province in an adventure covering more than 500 kilometers in the following days. However, along the way, the elephants have been spotted by surveillance cameras to venture into villages for food. Foraging on farms and visiting residential areas potentially pose a threat to both residents and elephants, which inevitable leads us to the second “how”.

How to safely guide the elephants somewhere? Chinese government has set a good example. To do that, local authorities have dispatched a task force and deployed hundreds of police personnel, including hiring drones to track the herd, trying the food bait, setting up roadblocks to steel the animals and evacuating residents. Moreover, according to the moving direction of the elephants, a ditch has been dug to guide them westward and southward, away from populated areas. Such measures, to a large extent, can ensure the safety of both humans and elephants, which leads us to the final question——how to reflect on the implications of this migration and people’s actions.

How to look on this event and its implications? On the one hand, it can be deemed as a sign of the developing harmony between man and nature in China. It is of paramount significance because an increasing number of wild animals have vanished over the last century. It is about time elephants were given the top level of protection. More attention to the coexistence of humans and animals should be called. On the other hand, these cute elephants are now deemed as an unofficial Chinese “ambassador” who have effectively shortened the distance between China and foreigners. Numerous netizens around the world have marveled at the cuteness of these elephants and some major international media outlets even describing them as “international stars” including the BBC and the Guardian. Most importantly, it is highly consistent with the spirit of Xi Jinping’s speech——to show a real, three-dimensional, and comprehensive China to the world and to strengthen China’s international communication capacity.