Angry elephants striking back

Angry elephants striking back

JAMBI, Jambi: Police in the regency of Kerinci said they would
send a team into the Kerinci National Park to investigate last
week's rampage by an elephant herd which damaged over 50 houses.

"There were no casualties reported during the stampede on
Thursday March 13. But at least 56 houses owned by farmers who
had built them at the edge of the national park were destroyed,"
said Kerinci police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Dwi Hartono on Monday.

He said the police would work with the park rangers to
investigate the cause of the incident.

The police were working on the assumption that the growing
presence of illegal loggers had frustrated and upset the
elephants who are trying to protect the last vestiges of their
dwindling habitat.

Some of the farmers have also planted their crops inside the
park, where police once found a marijuana plantation, Dwi said.

"We need to cooperate with various institutions and the public
to stop the illegal loggers and the movement of farmers inside
the national park, so that the animals in the park such as
elephants, tigers and bears, will not become angry with us and
attack the people living near the park," he said. -- Antara