The baby elephant was so small that it didn't yet know how to swim, but it didn't hesitate to join others from its roaming herd in Yunnan province when they walked into a fishpond.

▲ A herd of wild elephants feeds on crops in a field in Yimen county, Yuxi, Yunnan province, on Wednesday. Yuxi Public Security Bureau

Apparently to prevent the baby from being submerged, the adult elephants made great efforts to lower the water level by destroying the banks of the pond.

They succeeded, but most of the fish in the pond died, resulting in a loss to the fishpond's owner of about 5,000 yuan ($775).

The herd's damage to the village of Dazhai in the city of Pu'er, Yunnan province, went far beyond that amount, said Ding Chunlin, head of the village committee.

"During the 19 days they stayed in our village, they also caused crop failures on about 30 hectares of farmland," Ding said.

As the herd wreaked havoc in the village, which spans almost 75 square kilometers, there was no need for villagers to worry about the losses caused by the animals.

As monitors closely watched the herd to ensure people's safety, employees with an insurance company began assessing villagers' losses soon after they arrived in the mountain-ringed village on Aug 19, Ding recalled.

About 20 days after the herd left, a total of 210,000 yuan in compensation was transferred to villagers' bank accounts, he said.

"Villagers who suffered losses need not do anything but provide their ID and bank account numbers," Ding said.

As the herd continues roaming far from its traditional habitat after leaving Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve last year, Dazhai provides one example of how Yunnan authorities are dealing with losses caused by the animals.

According to the Yunnan provincial forestry and grassland administration, the province took the lead in the country in 2010 with a pilot insurance program that compensates for damage caused by wild animals. Using only public funds, the insurance program covered the entire province by 2014.

Since 2011, a total of 94.5 million yuan has been provided to compensate for damage caused by elephants in Pu'er, said Zhou Zhitao, an official with Pu'er's forestry and grassland department.

Yang Hua, an official at the Yunnan provincial forestry and grassland administration, said that to date, a total of 297 million yuan in compensation has been provided in more than 130,000 cases across the province. He did not disclose how much of that was compensation for damage caused by wild elephants.

Listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, Asian elephants are under first-class State protection in China. Thanks to joint protection efforts, the number of wild Asian elephants has reached about 300, up from around 170 in the 1970s.

The roaming herd continues to cause damage around the city of Yuxi, Yunnan.
More recent data was not available, but a previous media release from the Yuxi government said the herd damaged over 56 hectares of crops in the city between April 16 and May 27.

It cited a preliminary estimate that the direct economic losses caused during that time by the herd reached about 6.8 million yuan.

"All people who suffer damage will be compensated once the work is completed," he said.

记者：侯黎强