Primary school ensures it's now elephant-proof

With protective fences and portable barricades built from 15 metric tons of steel installed at its gate, pupils at Naji Primary School in Pu'er, a city in Yunnan province, now do not have to worry about wild elephants entering the campus and disturbing them.

Located in a rural area, the boarding school is indeed special, as it's the only primary school in China with special facilities to fend off pachyderms.

It is also a microcosm of the country's endeavor to prevent human-elephant conflicts in its efforts to protect the endangered species－numbers of which have increased from about 170 in the 1970s to about 300 now across China.

Real-time monitoring shows that about 20 elephants are currently in the area nearby the school, with the number reaching 40 at its peak, Tang Ying, deputy head of forestry and grassland administration in Simao district, where the school is located, said on Tuesday.

As a security guard at the school, Tao Zhaobing was often in a state of anxiety when he was on duty because of the elephants.

The school currently has 164 pupils and 11 teachers, and the giant animals visited the school at least twice during the night in 2017 and 2019, he recalled.

"It was after 1 am on an August night. Two elephants entered the school," said Tao, recalling the elephants' visit two years ago. "With their trunks, they snapped the palm trees on the campus. They also kicked over the trash bins, leaving the ground covered with rubbish."

Luckily enough, the duo arrived when students were away on summer break, he said.

Click to see live updates of Yunnan's wandering elephants

After the 2019 intrusion, the school applied to the local government and built the fences and barricades at its gate. However, Tao's anxiety remained for some time. "I was worried that the giant animals were strong enough to lift the barricades and get in again," he said.

The facilities withstood this test when some elephants tried to enter the school in March 2020.

"I'm now greatly relieved," he said with a smile.

Zhu Chao, the principal, said the school has taken a series of other measures to ensure students' safety.

Apart from removing from the campus all of the palm trees and other plants that the elephants regard as food, teachers have also organized drills and given lectures to help the students know how to respond when encountering a wild elephant, he said.

Zhu Hui, a fourth-grader, said her earliest memory about elephants dated back to the time when she was 4 years old.

"Previously, I was scared of them. Now, I'm not afraid of them anymore," she said.

The 11-year-old said she believes the wild elephants know it's not right to hurt people. But if they do pose a risk to her, she knows what to do.

"I will go to the nearest building and climb to the third floor," she said. "The elephants are so huge that we must keep a distance from them. But they're sometimes adorable and interesting, such as while they are caring for and playing with baby elephants."