One month after being shot by poachers, Ngo Duc Lien, a legal officer at the Chu Yang Sin National Park in Krong Bong district of Dak Lak province, still had to struggle with pain because bullets had not been removed from his body.

Lien was shot with tens of bullets when he and 22 forest rangers were patrolling the forest with 4 AK rifles and supporting tools.

On September 12, the patrolling team discovered four subjects bearing self-modified rifles and three hunting dogs and asked them to put down the weapons. The poachers ran away, leaving one rifle and a bag of bullets.

At 12 pm the same day, when the team was on the way home, they were attacked by the poacher, and Lien, who led the team, received tens of bullets. Forest rangers had to travel a long distance to carry Lien to the road where they could hail a car to hospital.

Prior to that, in January, the national park also sent a team to the site after receiving information from locals that tens of men went to the forests to hunt animals.

According to Do Van Lam, a forest ranger of Chu YangSin, the team met with 20 poachers who were in ambush. The poachers fired the forest rangers from above. Ta Ngoc Trong, a member of the team, received a shot wound on his right hand which crushed his bone. He was carried to Cho Ray Hospital in HCMC and underwent surgery to heal broken bone.

Local newspapers recently quoted experts as reporting that poachers are willing to fire on forest rangers and policemen.

In previous years, trapping was the major hunting method of poachers. However, now, as the number of wild animals has dropped, poachers usually hunt with dogs and rifles. 

Loc Xuan Nghia, director of Chu Yang Sin National Park, confirmed that forest protection teams are equipped with military goods, but it is still difficult to catch poachers.

Forest rangers have many times met poachers recently, but poachers ran away after shooting the rangers. If forest rangers fire and hit dangerous parts of poachers’ bodies or backs, they will face legal accusations. 

“Poachers are very aggressive, and more and more forest rangers have been wounded recently. This has discouraged them,” Nghia said.

The Ea So Natural Reserve is the only area in the large northwestern part of Dak Lak province where wild animals still live.

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