Funding needed

But Chen is still trying to figure out other methods that could encourage elephants to stay within a certain region, far from the villages.

Through years of observation, he discovered an elephant secret-they usually spend several months a year near a source of salt, which could be a rock or a small pool with a high salt content.

"We could build some artificial salt source far from the village," he said. "It won't hurt either villagers or elephants and will encourage the elephants to stay in the deep forest."

Drones that used to monitor forest fires have also been introduced to the wild elephant alert system since 2016, according to Chang Zongbo, a media officer from Xishuangbanna's forestry public security office. He said drones are sometimes used around the clock for real-time monitoring of all 18 elephants in Menghai county, using infrared cameras at night, and that sections of road will be cordoned off if elephants are found there.

"The biggest obstacle in solving conflicts between humans and wild elephants is the lack of scientific research funding," Chen said. Compared with some overseas research projects on big, wild animals that cost millions of dollars, he said scientific research on wild elephants in Yunnan had only received about 2 million yuan in government funding in the past decade.

"Government funds are mainly used as compensation for the losses of farmers during elephant encounters," he said. "But that can't solve the problem fundamentally.

"If more funding can be given to research programs, things will be different. Scientists would figure out effective and natural methods to ease tension by knowing more about this wild, giant species."

Li Xinyi contributed to this story.