Police in Dak Lak have taken into custody four men for allegedly attacking elephants and taking their tusks and tails to sell for ornamental or medicinal purposes.

Police in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak have taken into custody four men for allegedly attacking elephants and taking their tusks and tails to sell for ornamental or medicinal purposes.

The four arrested men include: Le Viet Dung, 34, from Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province; Pham Van Huy, 31, from Dong Nai Province, Dam Van Noi, 24, and Y Bia Hwing, 21, from Dak Lak.

Hwing, who used to be an elephant tamer, was in charge of luring the elephants before the other men attacked them with electrical-shock instruments.

Police seized a knife, a homemade system for electrical shock and 90 pieces of elephant tail hairs. Police believed the group was involved in killing one elephant, cutting the tail off another one, and pulling out the tail hairs of three others at an elephant farm in Dak Lak.

According to police, these men might also be involved in several other cases of cutting and pulling out hairs of elephants in Dak Lak.

The number of elephants in Dak Lak, the kingdom of tamed elephants, dropped from 166 in 1998 to around 50 this year because of unclear deaths and human attacks.

Recently several cases of elephant attacks for tusk and tails were reported in the province. Local people said that the elephant whose tail was cut off would die if it received improper care.

Many markets in the province sell elephant skins which are used to treat stomachaches. National laws prohibit hunting and killing elephants, but they do not explicitly state that the selling of elephant skin is illegal.

Source: Tuoi tre