It's a party for wild jumbos in China

Beijing: Chinese officials hope to lure hungry wild elephants away from farmland by offering 'dinner halls' with banana and sugar on the menu, state media reported.

Last year three villagers were killed by elephants around nature reserves in Xishuangbanna in the southwest province of Yunnan. Crops belonging to 12,000 families were also destroyed.

Wildlife officials are planning dinner halls' of banana plantations and sugarcane planted several kilometres from villages to entice the animals away. So far, 170 acres have been set aside.

Twenty years ago, Xishuangbanna had only 80 wild elephants compared to some 300 today.

In April, the Yunnan province government set aside $500,000 to compensate farmers for crops lost to hungry elephants, Xinhua said.

A local news agency said that the new dining initiative has "So far the experiment has had mixed results," but did not elaborate.