Kunming City, Yunnan Province, southwest China - June 5, 2021 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Various of elephants in village
2. Amateur video footages showing wild elephants in village
3. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Yang Xiangyu, staffer, Information and Communication Office, Yunnan Provincial Forest Fire Services Department:
"What impressed me most was the incident at the boundary of Yuxi River in Yuxi City. It seemed the wild elephants were checking the roads and surroundings of the river. However, they eventually failed to cross the river. Our staff members used excavators to make gentle slopes on both sides of the river so that they could pass through. The elephants successfully crossed the Yuxi River after walking back and forth for several hours."
4. Firefighters watching photos taken by drone
5. Photos of wild elephants

Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, southwest China - Recent (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
6. Aerial shots of forests
7. Aerial shots of elephants at nature reserve
8. Various of elephants at nature reserve
9. Aerial shots of elephants at nature reserve
10. Various of elephants at nature reserve
11. Aerial shots of elephants at nature reserve
12. Elephants at nature reserve
13. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Guo Xianming, director, Science Institute, Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve (ending with shot 14):
"They like to go to areas frequented by humans as there are plenty of food for Asian elephants in such areas. The Asian elephants take such areas as their habitats."
14. Elephants
15. Aerial shots of elephants at nature reserve
16. Map showing timeline of elephant herd's northward migration, speculation on reasons

The migrating herd of 15 wild elephants was still wondering near the central district of Kunming, capital city of southwest China's Yunnan Province by Saturday morning and all of them are in good conditions, according to local firefighters.

The herd entered Kunming, capital city of southwest China's Yunnan Province after walking for more than 40 days, according to local authorities.

The 15 elephants, initially living in a national nature reserve about 500 kilometers away from Kunming, arrived at Jinning District of Kunming on Wednesday night.

The firefighters are monitoring the herd with the help of drones.

They found that they stopped moving northwards and moved 6.6 kilometers towards the southwest to the Town of Shuanghe in Kunming's Jinning District.

On Friday, 630 police officers and other people, about 140 vehicles including engineering machines and 14 drones joined the operation to evacuate more than 135 households with 464 people along their migratory route and feed the animals with two tons of food.

They offer tips to the villagers on how to deal with wild elephants once encountering them.

The wandering elephants have caused trouble for local residents but there have been no conflicts between human and these wild animals. The professionals who monitor and trace them all the way, in particular, have kept in mind the idea of protecting the elephants during their work.

"What impressed me most was the incident at the boundary of Yuxi River in Yuxi City. It seemed the wild elephants were checking the roads and surroundings of the river. However, they eventually failed to cross the river. Our staff members used excavators to make gentle slopes on both sides of the river so that they could pass through. The elephants successfully crossed the Yuxi River after walking back and forth for several hours," said Yang Xiangyu, a staffer of the Information and Communication Office of Yunnan Provincial Forest Fire Services Department.

There are so far about 300 wild Asian elephants in the Xishuangbanna area, Yunnan, mostly in the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve where the migrating elephants used to live.

Staffers of the nature reserve are bewildered as to why the elephants embarked on their current journey as the ecology of the nature reserve is getting better and better and there were no human activities that have forced them to flee.

Workers of the nature reserve said wild Asian elephants like wild plants like paper mulberry but now they seem to prefer corn and sugarcanes.

Guo Xianming, director of the nature reserve's science institute, said abundant food in the areas where humans live may be an attraction for the wild animals.

"They like to go to areas frequented by humans as there are plenty of food for Asian elephants in such areas. The Asian elephants take such areas as their habitats," said Guo.

No one knows exactly why the herd of 15 elephants traveled all the way from their forest home in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan, but authorities have mobilized thousands of people to monitor their migration, suspend traffic on roads they marched on and use food to lure them away from human settlements.

Forest officials said the northward-migrating elephant herd began their migration in March last year.

The herd started off with 16 members, with two leaving the group and heading back along the way, but one new calf was also born.

They have now traveled all the way to Jinning District in Kunming.

There's been plenty of speculation about why the elephants migrated. For example, the elephants' leader getting lost, the animals' original habitat no longer being able to sustain them, or simply the changing habits of elephants.