The Dak Lak People's Committee has approved a 60 billion VND (3 million USD) project to protect elephants in Vietnam's central highlands.

Some forest will be set aside for wild elephants and habitats created for domesticated elephants, explained senior park ranger Y Rit Bya.

A veterinary clinic will be established to provide medical care and help with breeding, he said.

Elephants are mostly distributed in the Buon Don, Ea Sup and Ea H'Leo districts on about 160,000 ha which would be needed as a sanctuary for the species, a survey by Tay Nguyen University shows.

But human encroachment is diminishing the effectiveness of the sanctuary.

Park rangers have identified a wild elephant which killed a teenager in Dong Nai province's Dinh Quan district on Nov. 7.

The rangers said the elephant had heavily damaged crops when it rampaged through the fields of the Vinh Cuu district's Phu Ly Commune last year.

But the animal, which has now re-appeared many kilometres away, has not been homicidal.

Phu Ly commune Do Xuan Tinh resident said that he had encountered the animal once while returning from the forest in the late evening.

"I stiffened with fear," he said.

"But the beast approached me gradually and tickled me with his trunk. He then gave way to me."

The ranger's say the teenager's death was the first to an elephant in 10 years./.