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.