'Foolish' residents

'Foolish' residents
poison four tigers

JAKARTA: The dwindling tiger population in Indonesia's jungle-
clad Sumatra island has suffered another blow after residents
"foolishly" poisoned four of the beasts, police said on Tuesday.
One full-grown female tiger and its three cubs were poisoned last
Sunday by residents in the remote village of Jorong Durian
Jantung in West Sumatra province, said Yadi Prariyadi, police
chief of Pariaman district which covers the village. He said the
killing, using poison-laced cow carcasses, was done because the
tigers had been eating livestock in recent weeks. He speculated
that the tigers had moved close to the village due to their
dwindling natural habitat. Sumatran tigers are increasingly
venturing into villages or plantations on the edge of forests
since their natural habitat is rapidly shrinking. Activists say
logging, both legal and illegal, is destroying forests. Sumatran
tigers are now estimated to number only about 300 or 400. -- AFP