Elephants at training centers going hungry

BANDA ACEH, Aceh (ANTARA): Elephants at training centers in this province are suffering due to financial cutbacks, and their wild brethren are also on the decline due to man's abuse of their habitat.

"The impact of the economic and monetary crisis has affected the supply of nutritious food for the elephants and the provision of their medicine," Bambang Suprayogi, head of the conservation of natural resources office in Aceh province, told Antara news service.

Price rises have hit nearly all of the provisions for the animals.

About 30 tame and wild elephants at the Lhok Asan Elephants' Training Center in North Aceh, and four at the Cut Nyak Dhien Center in Saree, Aceh Besar regency, are now threatened by nutritional deficiencies.

Although the elephants' food is readily available in the forest, Bambang said the centers can no longer afford its purchase.

To keep in perfect health, elephants needs coconut palms, bananas, sugarcane stalks and pineapples. The price of coconut palms has increased from Rp 75 to Rp 300 a piece. Bananas, pineapples and sugarcanes have tripled in price.

"A big elephant requires 60 to 80 coconut palms daily, one bunch of bananas, five stalks of sugarcane and pineapples," he said.

The cost comes to Rp 25,000 a day for each elephant, compared to the allocation of Rp 8,000 per animal. Even then, the fund is subject to 11.5 percent tax, leaving a net amount of about Rp 7,000.

In a pinch, Rp 12,000 could meet the elephant's basic needs, but "that will only cover the healthy nutrients, but not the perfect ones".

The threefold increase in prices of medicine also presents an obstacle to keeping the animals healthy.

At the Lhok Asan center, a baby elephant needs particular care because it is still in its crucial growth phase. It must have a ready supply of mung beans, coconut palms, sugarcane and bananas, and medicine.

Formerly, there were 35 elephants at the 112-hectare Lhok Asan Elephants Training Center. But four of them were transferred to the Saree center because the former was considered no longer adequate to accommodate all of them, Bambang said.

The limited capacity of Lhok Asan presents a challenge to the effort to save wild elephants roaming the forests in Aceh province.

Herds of wild elephants frighten farmers because the animals often rampage through their fields. Bambang blamed the illegal felling of trees for forcing the animals to venture into residential areas.

He called for serious attention to the problem, especially from the government. He warned that the population of wild elephants in the forests could become extinct and those at the elephant training centers would suffer due to food shortages.

The threat to the elephants has been apparent in the last three years with the recorded deaths of two wild and one tame animal. One of the wild elephants died from intestinal worm infestation in Seulimum district, Greater Aceh. The other was killed in Pidie when it collided with high-voltage electrical wires.

A tame elephant at Lhok Asan also died from intestinal worms.

Critics and locals tie the deaths and the plight of the animals to the many logging companies and timber-processing units which established operations in the province in the last 10 years.

Due to the environmental damage and the scarcity of food, hungry elephants venture into villages and plantation areas. The latter are protected by electricity wires, sometimes resulting in electrocution.

Lhok Asan not only lacks adequate medicine for its animals, but also the medical personnel.

As the crisis continues, the dire straits of the elephants also worsen. Bambang estimates the number of wild elephants surviving in the forest at just 350.