Tourists advised to travel in groups, as wild elephants now search for food in trash bins
PUBLISHED : 3 Feb 2026 at 13:40
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Infrared camera footage shows wild elephants feeding on farmland in Khon Buri district, Nakhon Ratchasima. (Photo supplied)
NAKHON RATCHASIMA — Park rangers are trying to keep wild elephants away from communities and tourist attractions during the dry season. The measures cover a bull elephant that has killed three people, including a camper, in this northeastern province.
Rangers of the Khlong Pla Kang unit in Khao Yai National Park pushed Oiwan, the bull elephant, back into the woods after it killed a 65-year-old male camper who was exercising with his wife near their tent at a campground of the Khlong Pla Kang unit in Wang Nam Khieo district on Monday morning.
Nakhon Ratchasima governor Anupong Suksomnit closed the site, and park rangers are taking turns to watch for wild elephants. Meanwhile, other tourist attractions in Wang Nam Khieo remain open.
Attempts to keep wild elephants out also took place in Thap Lan National Park in Khon Buri district, adjacent to Wang Nam Khieo.
Yosawat Thiansawat, director of Protected Areas Regional Office 1 in neighbouring Prachin Buri province, said that during the dry season wild elephants increasingly feed near communities and tourists’ routes.
If visitors to Khao Yai encounter wild elephants, they should quickly and quietly leave the area. He advised tourists to travel in groups.
According to Mr Yosawat, there is a large herd of about 200 wild elephants in Thap Lan National Park in Nakhon Ratchasima. They feed in groups of 30 to 40 on farms adjacent to the park in tambon Udomsap of Wang Nam Khieo and in tambon Jorakhay Hin, Khon Buri.
Many Thap Lan park rangers have been mobilised to stand guard at tourist attractions, including Pha Keb Ta Wan viewpoint in Thap Lan National Park, for four months to protect tourists and campers.
Park rangers recently found traces of two wild elephants in the Khao Salad Dai area, but the site was already closed earlier after a wild tiger was seen there.
Phra Athikan Kampanart Sukhethito, abbot of Wat Moo See in Pak Chong district and head of a Khao Yai wildlife and environment conservation group, said Oiwan killed three people over the past two years.
The problem of Khao Yai wild elephants trespassing into communities is growing as they feed on farmland, communities and hotel compounds in Pak Chong and Wang Nam Khieo districts. They are appearing in larger numbers nightly in communities, the abbot said.
Wild elephants are not afraid of people or vehicles. They search for food in trash bins and have almost reached the centre of Pak Chong district, Phra Athikan Kampanart said.
Officials, including Nakhon Ratchasima governor Anupong Suksomnit, inspect the elephant attack scene on Monday. (Photo: Prasit Tangprasert)