Elephants hit back at illegal loggers

BANDAR LAMPUNG, Lampung: Dozens of wild elephants have trampled hundreds of hectares of rice fields and plantations in several areas in East Lampung regency over the past week.

Prayit, the chief of Labuhan Ratu subdistrict, said it was an annual "attack", and always occurred during the rice harvest season.

He estimated that at least 200 hectares of paddy were damaged by the wild, indigenous pachyderms, as were 1,500 hectares of coconut and cassava plantations. The elephants also laid waste to several human settlements, in which people, mostly illegal loggers and their families, had encroached upon the elephants' native habitat. -- JP