Elephant school cuts intake

BENGKULU: The elephant training center is reducing the number of elephants to be domesticated from 13 to only five this year because of budget constraints.

Spokesman of the Seblat elephant school Syamsudin said the Rp 149 million ($70,000) allocated budget will be sufficient to fund the hunting and training of five wild elephants, including paying the trainers' wages and other operation cost, he said.

The cost of training one elephant averages Rp 10 million ($5,000) until the animal can be used for special purposes like entertainment or attraction, carrying logs and guarding plantation against other wild animals, Antara reported.

The school has so far graduated 23 elephants.(prs)