Conservationists make extra efforts to save Sumatran elephants
Conservationists make extra efforts to save Sumatran elephants
Deutche Presse-Agentur, Jakarta
Conservation officials have intensified efforts to ensure the
survival of Sumatran wild elephants by proposing the
establishment of a special conservation zone for the endangered
species' habitat.
The World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF) said the conservation
forest area aims to reduce conflicts between the Sumatran wild
elephant and local villagers, especially in the eastern Sumatra
province of Riau.
Jakarta's Koran Tempo newspaper quoted Chairul Saleh, WWF-
Indonesia's senior species conservation officer, as saying his
office proposed the conservation zone in the Tesso Nilo forest
area, Riau province.
Saleh said the zone was one solution to the already crowded
elephant training and rehabilitation areas spread out over six
locations across Sumatra. These areas are used to domesticate the
beasts and provide vocational elephant training.
The Tesso Nilo jungle conservation zone is also a good habitat
for various flora and fauna in the province, Saleh said.
He estimated the population of wild elephants in Sumatra was
between 2,800 and 3,500, with about 800 in Riau province alone.
Compared with other endangered species, such as Sumatran tigers
and Sumatran rhinoceros, the elephants' population was still
sizable, but its survival has been seriously threatened by
poachers, Saleh said.
Illegal logging has led to constant declines in the Sumatran
elephants' habitat, prompting to the beasts to seek food from
nearby settlement areas.
In recent years, there have been increasing reports in Sumatra
of villagers being attacked by tigers or trampled to death by
wild elephants while trying to defend crops and homes.
Conservation officials say because of human encroachment into
the wild elephants' traditional stomping grounds, the pachyderms
have had no choice but to forage into cultivated fields and
plantations for food.
Under Indonesian law, the Sumatran wild elephant is listed as
endangered and killing the beasts is illegal.