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