The herd of wild Asian elephants that took a northbound trip in Yunnan Province gained a massive concern from netizens not long ago. There is a food base, covering a total area of 1,200 mu (about 80 hectares), that specifically provides sources of food for Asian elephants in Liushun Town, Pu’er City, southwest China’s Yunnan Province.

Luo Xinrong, aged 46, is not only a villager in the Liushun Town, but also a manager of the elephant food base. “We won't bother the elephants that come here, they can eat whatever they want in this place”, said Luo. 

Opening in 2018, the food base waits for elephants to visit from July to March every year. 19 elephants have visited this base since July this year. The number of visitors is constantly growing. There were 24 in 2018, 33 in 2019, and 2020 got a record of 51.

Except Luo, the manager, there are more than 20 local villagers in the team. In this food base, they plant sugarcane from March to April, corn from May to July, winter corn from October to December, and plantains in June.  

Before the food base was built, this place was once disturbed by wild elephants. The farmland was abandoned and without harvest for a long time. Until the authorities decided to rent farmland from villagers for 200 yuan per mu and employ them to work for the elephants.

“The harvest was ruined by elephants before and we could get nothing, but elephants barely come to our farmland now since we have this food base”, said Luo, “Our income is getting better now because we can not only get rent, but also wages”.

With the total cultivated area of 1,200 mu, the food base is available for 10 elephants eating for a month, and the entire area of the food base is about to expand 10 times in 2025 according to plan. 

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(Editors: Lexi, Christine)