More than 100 wild elephants caught ravaging crops were ushered back to the jungle in Thailand.

The mighty herd wandered out of the forest and found a farm where they feasted on rice, sugarcane, and corn in Nakhon Ratchasima province's Thap Lan National Park on September 4.

Within five days, the jumbos with massive appetite finished off 10 hectares of crop as locals sought help from the national park officers for help.

Most of the elephants were pushed back to the forest on September 10 evening after a team of 40 park rangers were deployed on the area for an operation.

National park chief Prapatpong Sukukrakarn said: ‘All relevant agencies were helping in the operation. The elephants were hiding, so we used drones with thermal cameras to find them.'

On September 8, the team successfully returned 54 elephants into their habitat, while the majority of the herd were ushered to the park two days later.

Park chief Prapatpong added that there could still be some jumbos that strayed around the farms, but the officers were on standby.

He added: ‘Some of them were paranoid and hid in the dense forest under large trees, but our officers were on standby in case there were sightings.'

Meanwhile, locals affected by the elephant attack on farms were worried about its drastic effects on this season's harvest.

Village leader Oraya Luengkatro said: ‘We are worried about the serious damage the elephants did. Our harvest has been eaten, trampled on, and we were learning harvest time.'

Local officers were still assessing the extent of damage to provide assistance to affected farmers.

Thailand has an estimated 2,000 Asian elephants living in the wild but they wander freely among protect forests and there is often conflict when they come into contact with humans on roads and in villages.

A similar number of elephants are kept in captivity where they work in the tourist industry or get hired out for religious festivals and weddings. A small number work in commercial logging.