Elephants go on rampage in Sumatra

Elephants go on rampage in Sumatra

JAKARTA: Wild elephants went on a rampage on Indonesia's Sumatra island, destroying palm-oil plantations in Riau province, media reports said Friday.

A "conflict" between the wild beasts and encroaching villagers was cited as the cause of the elephant's rampage that severely damaged dozens of acres of farmland in Rokan Hulu regency, the state-run Antara news agency reported.

"This continuous conflict is caused by the damage of elephant's habitat that leads to a scarcity of food for them," Nurchalis Fadli, the leader of elephant team for World Wildlife Fund (WWF), was quoted by Antara as saying.

Environmentalists and conservation officials have said that due to destruction of their habitat for development and illegal activities, elephants have posed a constant threat to humans.

"Riau's forest has disappeared into just mangrove forest, so when the rainy season comes and causes the mangrove forest to flood, those elephants will go to the nearest safe area," Fadli said, adding that Riau province has lost more than 50 per cent of its forest in the last twenty years.

Habitat destruction, combined with illegal poaching, has slashed the population of wild elephants on Sumatra, the only island in Indonesia where they can still be found. An estimated 4,000 of the protected species still live there. -- dpa