Yang Plateau: The last bastion of endangered Javan deer

By Doni Istyanto Hari Mahdi

SURABAYA (JP): Yang Plateau, also known as Iyang mountain range with the highest peak being Mount Argopuro (3,088m), lies between Mt. Bromo in Probolinggo and Mt. Raung in Banyuwangi.

Yang Plateau comprises rolling land between 1800m and 2400m above sea level. Yang or Iyang comes from the old Javanese word Hyang - in Kawi language - meaning God. In the old Javanese tradition, Yang Plateau was considered "The Land of God".

Argopuro, literally meaning "mount temple", has remains of an ancient temple at 2,800m altitude. The structure is decrepit due to weather and vandalism by hikers. It is believed that the temple was a legacy of the Majapahit kingdom.

Yang Plateau, surrounded by nine mountains, is also the origin of 14 rivers and two lakes. The smaller lake is Telaga Tunjung (1,900sqm) and the larger, Taman Hidup (1,968sqm).

At dusk, birds can be seen swimming on the water. Common birds include coots fulica atra with young, little grebe Tachybaptus ruficollis (Kooiman and Van der Veen 1936) and Australian pochard Aythya Australis. These birds are distributed widely from Europe to Australia, but they are very rare in Java and Bali (MacKinnon 1988, 1990).

Cikasur, one of the most important areas of Yang Plateau, has a unique climate because of its elevation. The climate is totally different from tropical climates in other areas in Java. The average in-house temperature in this area is about 18 degrees Celsius at noon and about 12 degrees at night and could be lower in the dry season.

In Cikasur, the persistent fog disappears at about 7 a.m. when the sun rises above the tree-covered hill to the east, and returns about 3 p.m.

This fog enhances the beauty of the gorgeous landscape because Yang Plateau has a rolling contour covered by grassy meadows. Another unique attraction in the area is the edelweiss plant (Anaphalis Viscida), which can reach 5m tall. Its thick population forms an Eidelweiss Park.

Yang Plateau also has plants with poisonous spines (Girardinia palmata), which can inflict a painful reaction lasting for two hours. Wild orchids can be found in some places in the meadow.

River of God

The cool weather, the landscape and clean and quiet environs makes Cikasur ("The river of God") an area highly suitable for a sanatorium or lung hospital. There is a spring at an altitude of 2,400m with a creek of crystal clear water, known as Kolbu River.

Visitors can see peacocks drinking in the river. If you are lucky you may see Javan deer crossing your path at dusk or dawn.

In 1844, Junghuhn visited the area and claimed to have seen up to 50,000 deers on a single day. The animals roamed the jungle in groups of 1,000 (Junghuhn 1854).

There are two species of deer in Yang Plateau: Javan Deer (Cervus Timorensis Russa) and Barking Deer (Muntiacus Muntjak Muntjak). Unfortunately the deer population has dropped sharply over the past century because of poaching, fires, natural predators, and scarcity of salt.

The shrinking deer population caused concern to the Netherlands Indische colonial administration, which proposed Adriaan Johan Marie Ledeboer to safeguard the ecosystem and develop health and recreation facilities in the area.

Ledeboer was an administrator of Coffee Plantation of Wadoeng West Maatschappij in Bremi, Pejarakan. He was also one of the Dutch coffee tycoons in East Java at that time. In 1907 Netherlands Indische administration gave him a concession of 1,100 ha of land,now Yang Plateau, for 75 years.

Ledeboer had a great vision for this land. His top priority was conserving the habitat. All natural predators of the deer -- leopard, panther, jungle cat and wild dog - were hunted and killed. In 1932, 140 wild dogs were reported to have been killed and hundreds of leopards, panthers and jungle cats were shot between 1915 and 1930 (Hoogerwerf 1974).

Ledeboer managed to influence the House of Representatives (Volksraad) to enact laws on wildlife protection. Several laws were enacted between 1931 and 1935 that carried heavy punishment for violators.

He spent a lot of money to make his dream come true. He built a house and a guest house in Cikasur near the Kolbu River. He built a 10-km stone-paved road to Cikasur in Yang Plateau, starting from his coffee plantation in Bremi-Pejarakan. It still needs 20-km more to reach Cikasur.

Ledeboer also built a 100m wide and 900m long airstrip in Cikasur to facilitate transportation. The nearest village was two days' walk along difficult paths.

He also planned to build a cable car as a recreational vehicle from the nearest village Bremi to Cikasur.

His most brilliant idea was to provide "salt cakes" to the deer -- most large herbivores need salt to maintain the proper physiological balance of their body fluids.

In the past, deer would come down to the coast to drink seawater that provided them enough minerals essential to grazing animals. But as human population in the area grew, the deer were afraid to go there. So Ledeboer provided salt cakes instead of seawater and built shelters to protect the cakes from dissolving in the rain or dew drops (Hoogerwerf 1974).

These efforts lasted for more than 30 years and successfully increased the deer population to 8,000 - 10,000 in 1940. However, threat from wild dogs remained.

Paradise on earth

To facilitate monitoring and protection of the deer, Ledeboer built fencing across the meadow using casuarina trees as hedges.

The fertile grassland and preservation measures encouraged herbaceous species to multiply. At that time Yang Plateau was described as "Paradise on Earth" (Loogen 1940).

Ledeboer's great efforts to protect Javan deer in Yang Plateau earned him a nickname of "The Legend of Yang Plateau".

In 1942 Japanese occupied Indonesia and Ledeboer was among the Dutch that were captured. That marked the beginning of disaster for the wildlife, especially for deer in Yang Plateau.

Ledeboer died in 1944 in Japan's detention camp in Ciamis, West Java.

Poachers freely captured and killed deer. Natural predators were unchecked--tipping the ecological balance in plateau.

The lack of salt caused health problems and its population has continued to decline up to the present. In fact the recent situation is worse than in the 1900s. The soil does not get enough natural fertilizer anymore; the grass grows too high and fires occur in dry seasons.

The fires destroy shrubs, but suckers often grow from their bases, albeit slowly. The soil exposed by the fire remains barren for years, and very few seedlings of the plants are found.

Fires are responsible for the disappearance of many species of herbaceous animals. Exotic flowers have gone missing as well and soil has lost fertility.

Ledeboer's house and his guest house are beyond repair. Its walls have collapsed. Ledeboer has gone, leaving an unfinished agenda to the present generation.

Comprehensive protection approaches are needed to save Javan deer in Yang Plateau. Human intervention is needed to put life cycles in this habitat back in balance.

The writer is Program's Coordinator of Salt for Deer Program in Yang Plateau.