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.