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© Forestry Bureau of Pu'er CityA group of wild Asian Elephants forage inside a corn field in Pu'er, south China's Yunnan Province.
There were at least six fatal wild elephant attacks last year in China, causing economic loss and some casualties, people.cn reports.

The improvement in ecological environment in recent years has largely stimulated the growth of wild Asian elephants, China's first-grade state protection animal. However, lacking enough food supplies and habitats, the wild Asian elephants are forced to flee to local farmland, inevitably causing damage to property.

In the past five years there were 37, 512 cases of wild elephant attacks with 54 casualties in Pu'er, south China's Yunnan Province.

Professor Chen Mingyong from the School of Life Sciences at Yunnan University said that failing to provide adequate food and habitats by local governments has attributed to the frequent wild elephant attacks.

Also many local governments were unable to compensate the victims promptly due to budget constraints and their unclear responsibilities defined by related law.