School transforms elephants from killers into toys<\/p>\n
By Jim Della-Giacoma<\/p>\n
WAY KAMBAS, Indonesia (AFP): In the wild, Arum, with her
\nimposing size and young calf by her side, would be seen as a
\nkiller by the people of Lampung, a dozen of whom are expected to
\ndie this year as Sumatra's elephants run amok.<\/p>\n
She would passionately guard her offspring as the pair
\ntrampled through rice paddies, grabbing the fruit from the trees
\nof hard-worked gardens.<\/p>\n
Local farmers would attack them in a vain attempt to ward them
\noff, often risking their lives in a last-ditch attempt to defend
\ntheir modest livelihoods.<\/p>\n
But as a graduate of the Way Kambas Elephant Training Center
\n(PLG), the once wild Arum has a new life as a placid and well-
\nbehaved beast, seen now the doting mother of the young, as yet
\nunnamed, one-month-old calf that tourists love to cuddle and be
\nphotographed with.<\/p>\n
It is a dramatic transformation from a murderous beast to a
\nchildren's plaything.<\/p>\n
\"The elephants are killing people because their habitat has
\nbeen taken over by people for farming,\" the regional head of the
\nDepartment of Forestry in Lampung, Pandjaitan, explained to AFP.<\/p>\n
When they become a problem, the dangerous Sumatran elephants
\nare drugged and taken from the wild by staff of the Forestry
\nMinistry, who have responsibility for the preservation of
\nwildlife in Indonesia, to one of four PLGs on the archipelago's
\nmain western island.<\/p>\n
Indonesian wildlife officials estimate there are somewhere
\nbetween 2,800 and 4,000 elephants still alive in Sumatra, with
\nthat number at least stable, if not increasing.<\/p>\n
In Lampung province at the base of Sumatra, where population
\npressure from an active government transmigration program has
\neroded the already limited living space of the lumbering beasts
\nin the last decade, Pandjaitan said there are thought to be 800
\nelephants.<\/p>\n
Up to 300 live outside the protection of the province's two
\nmain national parks of Way Kambas in the east and Bukit Barisan
\nSelatan in the mountainous west.<\/p>\n
The Way Kambas PLG itself has only 158 beasts within its 1,000
\nhectare (2, 470 acre) confines, with 82 animals already graduated
\nfrom the 18 month course and gone on to be tourist attractions,
\nzoo exhibits and even workhorses across the country.<\/p>\n
Forestry officials regard the taming of animals for a
\nlifetime, possibly up to 60 years, in a zoo, fun park or circus,
\nan acceptable compromise.<\/p>\n
\"The people are happy with this, and so this way the elephants
\ncan be preserved,\" said Pandjaitan, predicting that between nine
\nand 12 people would die a year in Lampung under the feet of
\nenraged wild elephants.<\/p>\n
\"We can make a relationship between the people and the
\nelephants, which is mutually beneficial and helpful,\" he added.<\/p>\n
Local conservationists support the strategy.<\/p>\n
\"We only agree as the elephants are only being taken because
\nthey are destroying crops, but not if they are specifically taken
\njust to become tourist attractions,\" said Eddy, a member of the
\nWatala environmental group in the provincial capital Bandar
\nLampung, 120 kilometers (74 miles) southwest of here.<\/p>\n
While the majority have gone to become tourist attractions,
\nthe head of the education section at the Way Kambas PLG,
\nNazarudin, said the elephants are also trained to work on farms,
\nplowing fields or hauling logs in the forest, and even as mounts
\nfor forest rangers on patrol against wood poachers.<\/p>\n
Ironically, some have even gone full circle and in a recent
\npolice operation were used to destroy the crops of squatters who
\nwere being evicted from a state forest.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/school-transforms-elephants-from-killers-into-toys-1447893297",
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