China’s wandering elephants may finally be heading home

A herd of wandering elephants cross a river using a highway near Yuxi city, Yuanjiang county in southwestern China’s Yunnan Province (Yunnan Provincial Command Center for the Safety and Monitoring of North Migrating Asian Elephants/AP)

An elephant herd that has fascinated people around the world appears to be heading back home after a year-long journey into urbanised south-west China which saw them raid farms and even a retirement home for food.

Local authorities have deployed trucks, workers and drones to monitor the elephants, evacuated roads for them to pass safely and used food to steer them away from populated areas.