Population of orangutans in E. Kalimantan declining
Population of orangutans in E. Kalimantan declining
JAKARTA (JP): The government estimates the number of orangutans in East Kalimantan to be 300, warning that the orangutan population is dwindling as a result of forest exploitation activities.
Head of the provincial office of the Natural Resource Conservation Agency, Budiman Amien, said in the East Kalimantan capital of Samarinda on Wednesday that the primates were also threatened by tuberculosis and hepatitis, which were prevalent.
Budiman said more and more orangutans were moving from the jungle to plantation areas, indicating that they are unable to bear the increasing pressure on their natural habitat.
"Cases of orangutans encroaching on residential areas are comparable to those of elephants going on the rampage in Lampung (south Sumatra) villages because logging threatens their survival," Antara quoted him as saying.
East Kalimantan's forests have been divided into numerous forestry concession areas.
The government has established an orangutan rehabilitation center near a protected forest in Samboja, about 60 kilometers south of Samarinda. The center re-educates orangutans previously kept as pets, then sets them free in the nearby Sungai Wein protected jungle. The center also carries out research.
There have been proposals to make orangutans a tourist attraction, in support of the local government's campaign to promote eco-tourism.
But Budiman is not enthusiastic about the proposal, saying that the animals are highly vulnerable to diseases like tuberculosis and hepatitis, against which their bodies have no resistance.
Chief of the Samboja orangutan rehabilitation center, Mulyono Omon, said many of the 165 orangutans that the center has rehabilitated have hepatitis or tuberculosis, and that may have got it from their former owners.
"The absence of any resistance against tuberculosis and hepatitis makes the orangutans contract the diseases very easily," he said.
The center boasts a clinic possessing sophisticated medical equipment, like surgery kits and X-ray cameras -- luxuries unavailable at human clinics in the area.
Of the 165 orangutans the center has re-educated, 84 have been set free into the Sungai Wein forest, which is becoming a popular tourist destination.
Mulyono said another 64 orangutans, 30 of which were regained from Taiwan smugglers several years ago, would be released soon in Arang Mentus because there were already too many in Sungai Wein. (pan)