Baby Elephant Falls into Septic Tank, Herd Rampages and Destroys Workers' Quarters in Siak

A herd of wild elephants entered a workers’ settlement and damaged six dormitory rooms at the Tapung District of PT Arara Abadi in Rantau Bertuah Village, Minas Sub-district, Siak Regency, Riau, on Sunday, 22 February 2026. A number of workers inside the buildings scrambled outside to escape the 11 elephants that stormed the quarters.

Before entering the residential area, the elephant herd had been observed in a protected greenbelt zone directly adjacent to the workers’ dormitories — only approximately 10 metres away. The panic was believed to have been triggered by a female elephant calf that had fallen into a septic tank roughly 2.5 metres deep in the area.

As the evacuation process got under way, the herd was seen pacing around the site and emitting loud calls from the direction of the greenbelt. This behaviour was thought to be an instinctive response from the mother attempting to signal her calf’s location, which subsequently triggered panic among the herd and led to the destruction of several dormitory facilities.

The incident report was received by officers from the Riau Grand Office for Conservation of Natural Resources (BBKSDA), which immediately deployed a Wildlife Rescue Unit team along with mahouts from the Minas Elephant Training Centre (PLG) to the location. The evacuation was carried out manually and took approximately 45 minutes.

“The calf that fell in is female, with an estimated age of approximately seven days,” said the Head of the Riau BBKSDA Grand Office, Supartono, in a press statement on Sunday.

The wildlife rescue team immediately returned the baby elephant to the herd in the greenbelt area, and it has since been reunited with its group.

Supartono confirmed there were no human casualties in the incident. Nevertheless, six dormitory rooms sustained damage and three motorcycles belonging to workers were also affected. He noted that the elephant herd had rampaged and destroyed the dormitories whilst searching for their young.

“It is suspected that the elephants rampaged and destroyed the dormitories because of the cries of their calf trapped in the septic tank,” he said.

Officers from the Siak District Police and Minas Sub-district Police, together with the BBKSDA Riau mitigation team, are continuing to monitor the area surrounding the site to anticipate the potential for further conflict between wildlife and human activity in the zone.