Elephants patrol Leuser conservation area

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan, North Sumatra

Despite her young age, Christine feels at home alone while her mother has to go to work. Although she has on occasion behaved badly to protest the deployment of her mother along with other trained elephants to patrol part of the Leuser conservation area in Aras Napal, Besitang, North Sumatra.

Christine, the product of a tame elephant and a wild one, was born five months ago at the Elephant Patrol Unit (UPG) station.

Her presence at the UPG increased the number of tame elephants to five. In spite of her tender age, the calf has at times followed her mother Tantri around the forest around Mount Leuser National Park (TNGL) while on patrol.

Tantri, along with three other elephants, Rio, Dion and Aini, was hired from the elephant training center in Way Kambas in Lampung in April 1999 and have been deployed to help protect staff help safeguard the protected forest in the national park from illegal loggers.

The four elephants have patrolled the forest 10 days a month for the past five years.

Four pawang (mahouts) from Way Kambas -- Indra Syahputra, Wagino, Naharuddin and Danang Dono -- are also on hand to this very day, caring for the elephants and leading them on patrols in the area.

Head pawang, Indra, said that initially five elephants were hired to protect the park, but after three years at the UPG, an elephant named Anang died after being ill for many months and was buried at the UPG.

"The trained elephants' presence in Aras Napal has contributed much to the conservation area. They are very helpful. We gain more but pay less because the elephants do not require special food that costs a lot," said Indra.

According to the pawang, the Elephant Patrol Unit has foiled hundreds of cases of timber theft.

For example, in 2003, 23 cases of illegal logging were foiled and the loggers arrested. Pawang and conservation staff also seized around 50 tons of illegal timber and four chain saws.

The patrol unit also took action against 19 people collecting nontimber products from the forest.

The head of forest rangers in Aras Napal, E. Siregar, said since the elephants became involved in patrols, the rate of timber theft in the Leuser area, especially in Besitang and its surrounding areas, had dropped.

He said forest rangers experienced no difficulty apprehending illegal loggers as most of them did not resist arrest.

"They (illegal loggers) usually surrender because they feel overwhelmed. They are afraid of the elephants, not us," he said.

Indra said it was not easy to train elephants for forest patrols as they were once wild and had not been trained to patrol at Way Kambas.

After undergoing general training at Way Kambas training center, the elephants underwent special training for patrols upon arrival at the conservation area. With routine training, the elephants have come know the national park.

Pawang do not need magical powers to handle the elephants.

"I don't really agree to being called a pawang because it infers that we possess magical powers, whereas we don't. We only have the courage to work with and care for the animals," he told The Jakarta Post at the UPG in Aras Napal.

Wagino, 33, another pawang, said he had once been kicked four meters by an elephant he was trying to train.

He said three things were necessary to successfully train elephants, he said: "We should sometimes treat them humanely, sometimes like animals and we need certain tools to help us train them."

Wagino recalled his first experience as a pawang, when he was desperately trying to subdue a wild elephant in Way Kambas. No other jobs were available and he had no choice but to do it, despite his inexperience.

"It is so difficult to find a job these days. By chance, I applied for the job after getting information from the training center on opportunities for elephant pawang. Unexpectedly, my application was accepted."

Wagino, who has worked with elephants for almost 15 years, admits that he sometimes finds the job boring but says it is too late for him to change his profession and he must work to support his family and send his children to school.

He said that as a pawang at the UPG, he is entitled to six days off a month.

"But we have to visit the elephants every morning to feed them. The elephants have become part of our daily lives and we are here for them. They are our true friends," he said.

European Union Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom illustrated her fondness for elephants when she and her entourage visited on a field trip to the EU-funded conservation area last Monday.

The EU official and several reporters rode on the elephant's backs on a tour around the conservation area. Wallstrom expressed appreciation of the deployment of the elephants, saying their presence had contributed much, not only in maintaining the conservation area but also in protecting wild animals in the protected primary forests in the national park.