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