Sumatran tigers on brink of extinction

Sumatran tigers on brink of extinction

By Yusril Ardanis

PADANG, West Sumatra (JP): Recent months have witnessed
intensified hunting of Sumatran tigers (Panthera sumatera tigris)
in the forest of Kerinci Seblat National Park, West Sumatra. The
Indonesian Forum for Environment's West Sumatra office estimates
that in the last quarter, dozens of tigers have been killed upon
eating poisoned carcasses that hunters used as bait.

At present, the areas where tiger hunting is most rampant are
the Lunang Silaut area, the border area between West Sumatra and
Bengkulu, and the South Kayu Aro Solok area (the border area
between West Sumatra and Jambi).

Tiger hunters have of late been overcome by renewed enthusiasm
as they now have at their disposal a very easy, safe and
effective means of hunting, namely by using a poison called Temik
10 gram.

Their enthusiasm has grown as some tauke (a derogatory term
used for a boss of Chinese origin) have arrived from Bangko,
Jambi, to buy tiger's hides and bones. Tauke will pay Rp 5
million for the hide of an adult tiger, Rp 100,000 for one kilo
of tiger bones. An adult tiger has about 10 kilos of bones. Some
sources claim that a hide fetches much more if taken to Padang or
Jakarta to sell.

The Jakarta Post, recently on a visit to Lunang Silaut,
observed that locals are opposed to tiger hunting because they
fear it could cause the tigers to leave their habitat in the
hilly areas if these activities continue unchecked. In the 1980s,
tigers entered villages in Tiumang, Sitiung, some 200 kilometers
from here, and attacked the villagers. The tigers in Tiumang
became fierce because their habitat was disturbed by land-
clearing activities. Besides, to the locals in Lunang Silaut, as
with most villagers in West Sumatra, disturbing tigers is taboo.
To the locals, tigers are mythical creatures.

According to records compiled by Indonesian Forum for
Environment (Walhi) West Sumatra, once four tigers had died after
eating the poisoned carcass of a boar. The tigers were thought to
be a family: two female, one male and one cub.

"This happened in Kapur village, Sungai Pagu subdistrict, in
August this year," said Rahmadi, executive director of Walhi's
West Sumatra office.

According to a study by the World Wide Fund for Nature
Indonesian Program (WWF-ID0117 domiciled in Rengat) in 1996, one
subspecies of Sumatran tiger is undergoing a population crisis
owing to intensive hunting. The study says that at least in one
year 14 tigers were killed by hunters.

The habitat of Sumatran tigers is also threatened by man.

According to Rahmadi, locals are quite right to fear the
tigers. "If their habitat is disturbed, these tigers can always
intrude into villages," he said.

A forest ranger at the West Sumatra natural resources
conservation office (KSDA), Djoko Suhardjo, also agreed that the
hunting of Sumatran tigers had intensified recently. He said that
apart from using poisonous baits, he had strong evidence that
hunters also use firearms. In April this year, a KSDA team
managed to save a tiger wounded by gunshot.

"I'm not accusing anybody, but considering the type of hole
caused by the gunshot, it was obvious that the gun wasn't of a
type used by regular people," he said.

Unfortunately, he said, he could not do much because the
wounded tiger was found inside the national park, not in the area
of KSDA, which is his jurisdiction.

In Djoko's estimate there are not many Sumatran tigers left in
the park. "I think the number is small now. The population has
dropped sharply because of years of hunting," he added.

Through Rahmadi, Walhi West Sumatra has urged the West Sumatra
provincial administration to immediately establish cooperation
involving relevant government agencies in order to take
integrated action to put an end to hunting tigers. "So far each
government agency has been carrying out its program separately
and, also, not transparently," Rahmadi said.

Poison

Today hunting has been made easy. A hunter does not have to
carry a rifle. All that is needed is a tin of Temik 10 grams
poison to become a hunter. The poison can be smeared all over the
carcass of a boar.

A boar carcass is not expensive. Almost every week many people
in a number of areas in West Sumatra go boar hunting. Later they
just toss away the boars they killed.

Once they get a boar for bait, hunters go into the forest in a
group. Apart from taking all sorts of weapons and foodstuffs,
they each carry a gunnysack containing a boar carcass smeared
with Temik.

According to locals in Lunang Silaut, the hunters go the edge
of a forest in a convoy of jeeps and then walk into the forest.
The jeeps return, meanwhile, toward Padang.

Some hunters may stay in the forest for three days and three
nights. At a prearranged time, a convoy of jeeps will return to
pick up hunters.

Initially the hunters do not catch tigers, they try to find
the sites where tigers usually pass and then put their baits
there.

The hunters return a few days later, this time without any
boar carcasses. They simply want to see what has happened to
their baits.

"Sometimes the hunters can get two tigers at the same time,
but often they do not get even one," said the locals.

According to the locals, tiger hunters used to go into the
forest carrying firearms. Some of them would place tiger traps
made of wood. Recently, however, these two methods have been
abandoned. Hunters going into the forest with guns simply go
hunting for fun, the locals said. Most hunters go into the forest
to get tigers in order to sell them.

Using poisonous baits for tigers has caused restlessness among
the locals of Lunang Silaut. They believe tigers must not in any
way be disturbed. When the forest of Lunang Silaut was cleared
for a transmigration site some 15 years back, the locals were
startled by roaring tigers entering their village during the
night.

To them, the intrusion of these tigers should be taken as a
warning. Some of them are so afraid by the mightiness of a tiger
that they have a special term for it, that is inyiak balang, a
local term meaning a striped figure with magical powers.

The locals are powerless to stop the hunters, who usually
gather at the edge of a forest a long way from the village.

"It is difficult to find these hunters. However, according to
locals looking for wood, they come from the direction of Padang,"
said Almas, a local youth.