A wild elephant killed a tourist at the campsite …

Wild elephant killed 80-year-old tourist while camping in a nature park in northeastern Thailand.

Provincial police chief Chusit Lorsang said he received a call Thursday a few minutes before 2 a.m., alerting them the tragic episode that occurred in Khao Yai National Park, a popular tourist destination located about 140 kilometers northeast of Bangkok.

Chusit clarified that the elephant killed the tourist while he was inside his tent, located next to his car at Pha Kluai Mai campsite, which has been temporarily closed by park authorities.

In turn, he argued that it is not common for pachyderms to attack people, although he admits that “many wild elephants often roam near the campsite”.

Khao Yai National Park Chief Adisak Phusitwongsanuyut explained that the elephant is believed to have been in the so-called “must”, a period in which male pachyderms experience a surge in hormones reproductive which makes them aggressive.

This is not the first time that wild elephants and vehicles have collided on the roads of Khao Yai Park, which hosted large numbers of tourists before the pandemic.

According to some animal welfare groups, some 3,000 wild elephants currently live in Thailand’s forests threatened by increasing deforestation, unlike the 300,000 pachyderms that populated the country more than a century ago. Likewise, it is estimated that there are still three thousand domestic elephants, many of which are used in tourist parks.

In the past, thousands of pachyderms were used in the timber industry in Thailand, but when the activity was banned in 1989, they began to be displayed in the streets for begging or used in tourist shows.