The National Forestry and Grassland Administration has announced that the 14 Asian elephants wandering in Yunnan province since leaving their traditional habitat in Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve in the province's far south 17 months ago, had crossed the Yuanjiang River, moving from its northern to southern bank on Sunday.

The task of helping the elephants return home is seeing decisive progress. Since leaving their habitat, the elephants have traveled almost 500 kilometers in the province.

For months, unmanned aerial vehicles have been tracking their movements, while people with cameras follow them everywhere. Keeping pace with them is a team responsible for their safety comprising animal, geography and ecology experts, while local residents take photographs and videos of the animals from a safe distance and upload them on social networking sites, thus announcing their progress. These videos are becoming something like the episodes of a soap opera that are being watched by tens of millions of people daily.

Besides giving them attention, the local authorities have been helping the elephants return home, tricking them on the right track by luring them with food.

Local residents have been cooperating by insisting on caring for the elephants until they reach home. To ensure their safety, the authorities have blocked the road at some places while persuading local residents to stay out of the elephants' way. Where the elephants have damaged residents' property, eaten or damaged their crops, the local governments have paid for the damages.

All this is heartening news ahead of Thursday, which marks the 10th World Elephant Day, established in 2012 to create awareness about the need to protect elephants. For several decades now, China has been paying ample attention to protecting elephants. The results are there for all to see. The number of wild Asian elephants has risen from slightly above 100 at the end of the 20th century to about 300 by the end of 2019.

What has helped the process is the growing public awareness about the need to protect wildlife, as evidenced during the elephants' journey.

A harmonious relationship between humans and wildlife is central to protecting China's ecology. That in turn requires everybody to do their bit. We hope that in the future too there are more examples like that of the elephants wandering from Xishuangbanna.