Sumatran Tiger Appears Again, Palupuh Residents Heighten Vigilance
That morning, the footpath toward the rice fields in Jorong Palupuh looked ordinary: quiet, damp with dew, framed by the green hills typical of Agam Regency. But who would have thought, just a few tens of metres from residents’ cattle shed, a Sumatran tiger stood still, gazing at humans without a roar or leap, as if trying to convey something.
On Saturday (28 Feb) around 09:30 local time, Dedi Saputra (35), a resident of Tabuah-Tabuah, Nagari Pasia Laweh, Palupuh District, set off for his fields about a kilometre from his home. He parked his motorcycle at the roadside, then walked along the embankment. In the middle of his approach, the long-haired man suddenly stopped. A Sumatran tiger stood not far from him.
The protected animal under law did not attack immediately. It instead tried to approach. Dedi, suppressing his nerves, promptly notified Syafril alias Cap (64), who was at the cattle shed not far from the location. The two tried to drive the tiger away. Yet the animal did not budge. It lingered for about 20 minutes, at a distance of only about 15 metres from the shed.
“Tigers are confused. We drive it away, but it does not leave,” Cap recalls. Eventually, the animal slipped into a thicket corridor and disappeared toward the forest.
For Palupuh residents, a tiger appearing in farmland is not common. The Sumatran tiger is known to avoid humans. It rarely shows its stripes, let alone approaches settlements. But this is not the first time. Two days earlier, a tiger also appeared in Ladang Ateh, while residents were clearing a banana plantation. Footage of the appearance had gone viral on social media.
The report was then forwarded to the Nagari Patrol Team for Children (Pagari) Pasia Laweh. That afternoon, the team together with residents moved to address negative interactions between humans and wildlife. They looked for footprints, droppings, and installed trail cameras at the appearance point.
Two cameras were installed by Tabuah-Tabuah residents, one in the paddy field where the tiger appeared, and another on a hillside ridge about 200 metres from the first location. During the installation process, the unexpected happened again.
The tiger appeared again.
Chairman of the Pagari Pasia Laweh Team, Bambang Purnama, said their distance from the animal was only about five metres. “It approached us, walking slowly, then dodged,” he said. Nine people stood frozen. No one dared to move quickly. Within minutes, the tiger disappeared back into the forest.
For Bambang, it was the first time he had seen a Sumatran tiger in the wild. Until now he had only seen the king of beasts in a zoo or on television. “This is an extraordinary experience, meeting it directly in the wild,” he said, still speaking with a mix of awe and fear.