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116914
Thu, 04/15/2010 - 22:40
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https://oananews.org//node/116914
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News Focus: WILD ELEPHANTS POSE THREAT TO RURAL RESIDENTS IN RIAU
By Eliswan Azly
Jakarta, April 15 (ANTARA) - Destructive wild elephant rampages in human settlements in rural areas in Riau province have lately increased in frequency and thus come into the public spotlight and caused growing concern.
Herds of wild elephants are posing a serious threat to residents of two villages in Bengkalis district Riau, as the giant animals often entered the villages and attacked their occupants.
The head of Petani village in Riau on Wednesday said wild elephants were still seen as a serious threat to the safety of the residents of Petani and Pematang Pudu villages in Bengkalis subdistrict and the big animals had almost killed two people.
He said there were some 40 elephants in the border region of the two villages, especially Petani village, to which the big animals often returned.
The latest attack was experienced by Sangkot (32), who sustained serious injuries on his back and feet trampled by the giant animals when he was trying to chase them away from his banana plantation on Monday (April 14) at 1 pm.
Earlier, Sunardi (42), of Jalan Rangau, Petani village, also had a broken left arm, and injuries on his back, after an elephant trampled him when he and scores of other villagers were trying to chase away the big animals from their oil palm plantation on Wednesday (March 24) at 5.30 pm.
"At least five of the scores of elephants often attacked the villagers apparently in revenge for their dwindling number because many of them had died," he said.
On Saturday (March 23), Petani villagers found a tuskless dead elephant in their rubber plantation where the rubber trees had not been sapped for a long time because of the elephants roaming in the area.
On Tuesday (March 30) a very young elephant was also found dead at the Minas Elephant Conservation Center (PKG), Siak district, Riau.
In the meantime, according to World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in the January-March 2010 period four Sumatera elephants (elephas maximus sumatranus) were found dead in Riau causing the further dwindling of their population.
From 2006 to March 2010 a total of 48 Sumatra elephants were found dead, with many of them decayed to the bones.
The rapid death of the animals was caused by the sluggish handling of the conflict between the big animals and human beings and the weak process of law enforcement against criminal offenders.
"In the last four years no elephant killing cases had been handled by the courts in Riau," WWF Riau spokesperson Syamsidar said.
The attack by wild elephants into residents' houses and farmlands is inseparable from deforestation in the province concerned in addition to their loss of habitats she said.
A coalition of conservation organizations, including WWF, has launched a new interactive mapping tool on the elephant population and forest cover on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
Sumatran elephants in Riau have declined by nearly 75 percent over the past 11 years as a result of a shrinking forest habitat. Without improved management, it is likely they could face extinction in another five years. In 2003, there were approximately 400 Sumatran elephants in Riau.
The interactive map helps readers visualize forest loss in Sumatra's Riau Province since 1982. In addition to identifying protected areas in the province, it also identifies companies whose operations have replaced forests and companies who hold licenses to convert additional forests. The map also shows distribution of elephants and information on elephant-human conflicts.
As forest cover in Riau has disappeared as a result of deforestation and land conversion, particularly conversion to oil palm plantations, the elephant populations have shrunk and human-wildlife conflict has increased.
A WWF investigation in Riau has found that since 2000, 16 people have died in conflicts with elephants, and 45 elephants have died from poisoning or poaching. An additional 201 elephants were captured by the government to mitigate conflict. Forty-five of those died as a result of the captures.
WWF recently discovered that 10 endangered wild Sumatran elephants have been kept chained to trees without enough food or water in central Riau after being made homeless by the complete destruction of their forest. The elephants were raiding crops and threatening a nearby village before being captured by local authorities. The Riau government said it wanted to capture and relocate all of the elephants to the newly designated Tesso Nilo National Park.
Currently, only 38,000 ha of the Tesso Nilo National Park are protected out of a proposed 100,000 ha.
"The entire area must be protected before it can be considered as a feasible location for the captured elephants," said Nazir Foead, Head of WWF Indonesia Species Programme.
"These ten elephants are the latest casualties in the escalating human-elephant conflicts in central Sumatra, the direct result of uncontrolled destruction of their forest habitat. These elephants need room to live, which means ending problematic pulp and oil palm development."
The Ministry of Forestry and NGOs developed a human-elephant conflict mitigation protocol for Riau that would avoid the kinds of cases that have occurred in recent weeks. The protocol is aimed at working with local communities on mitigating the conflict without the need to capture elephants.
In addition, WWF is working with Riau Province's Natural Resource Conservation Agency and the communities surrounding Tesso Nilo to avoid losses from raiding elephants. Since 2004, losses declined dramatically, no houses have been destroyed and there have been no loss of human or elephant lives.
Jakarta, April 15 (ANTARA) - Destructive wild elephant rampages in human settlements in rural areas in Riau province have lately increased in frequency and thus come into the public spotlight and caused growing concern.
Herds of wild elephants are posing a serious threat to residents of two villages in Bengkalis district Riau, as the giant animals often entered the villages and attacked their occupants.
The head of Petani village in Riau on Wednesday said wild elephants were still seen as a serious threat to the safety of the residents of Petani and Pematang Pudu villages in Bengkalis subdistrict and the big animals had almost killed two people.
He said there were some 40 elephants in the border region of the two villages, especially Petani village, to which the big animals often returned.
The latest attack was experienced by Sangkot (32), who sustained serious injuries on his back and feet trampled by the giant animals when he was trying to chase them away from his banana plantation on Monday (April 14) at 1 pm.
Earlier, Sunardi (42), of Jalan Rangau, Petani village, also had a broken left arm, and injuries on his back, after an elephant trampled him when he and scores of other villagers were trying to chase away the big animals from their oil palm plantation on Wednesday (March 24) at 5.30 pm.
"At least five of the scores of elephants often attacked the villagers apparently in revenge for their dwindling number because many of them had died," he said.
On Saturday (March 23), Petani villagers found a tuskless dead elephant in their rubber plantation where the rubber trees had not been sapped for a long time because of the elephants roaming in the area.
On Tuesday (March 30) a very young elephant was also found dead at the Minas Elephant Conservation Center (PKG), Siak district, Riau.
In the meantime, according to World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in the January-March 2010 period four Sumatera elephants (elephas maximus sumatranus) were found dead in Riau causing the further dwindling of their population.
From 2006 to March 2010 a total of 48 Sumatra elephants were found dead, with many of them decayed to the bones.
The rapid death of the animals was caused by the sluggish handling of the conflict between the big animals and human beings and the weak process of law enforcement against criminal offenders.
"In the last four years no elephant killing cases had been handled by the courts in Riau," WWF Riau spokesperson Syamsidar said.
The attack by wild elephants into residents' houses and farmlands is inseparable from deforestation in the province concerned in addition to their loss of habitats she said.
A coalition of conservation organizations, including WWF, has launched a new interactive mapping tool on the elephant population and forest cover on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
Sumatran elephants in Riau have declined by nearly 75 percent over the past 11 years as a result of a shrinking forest habitat. Without improved management, it is likely they could face extinction in another five years. In 2003, there were approximately 400 Sumatran elephants in Riau.
The interactive map helps readers visualize forest loss in Sumatra's Riau Province since 1982. In addition to identifying protected areas in the province, it also identifies companies whose operations have replaced forests and companies who hold licenses to convert additional forests. The map also shows distribution of elephants and information on elephant-human conflicts.
As forest cover in Riau has disappeared as a result of deforestation and land conversion, particularly conversion to oil palm plantations, the elephant populations have shrunk and human-wildlife conflict has increased.
A WWF investigation in Riau has found that since 2000, 16 people have died in conflicts with elephants, and 45 elephants have died from poisoning or poaching. An additional 201 elephants were captured by the government to mitigate conflict. Forty-five of those died as a result of the captures.
WWF recently discovered that 10 endangered wild Sumatran elephants have been kept chained to trees without enough food or water in central Riau after being made homeless by the complete destruction of their forest. The elephants were raiding crops and threatening a nearby village before being captured by local authorities. The Riau government said it wanted to capture and relocate all of the elephants to the newly designated Tesso Nilo National Park.
Currently, only 38,000 ha of the Tesso Nilo National Park are protected out of a proposed 100,000 ha.
"The entire area must be protected before it can be considered as a feasible location for the captured elephants," said Nazir Foead, Head of WWF Indonesia Species Programme.
"These ten elephants are the latest casualties in the escalating human-elephant conflicts in central Sumatra, the direct result of uncontrolled destruction of their forest habitat. These elephants need room to live, which means ending problematic pulp and oil palm development."
The Ministry of Forestry and NGOs developed a human-elephant conflict mitigation protocol for Riau that would avoid the kinds of cases that have occurred in recent weeks. The protocol is aimed at working with local communities on mitigating the conflict without the need to capture elephants.
In addition, WWF is working with Riau Province's Natural Resource Conservation Agency and the communities surrounding Tesso Nilo to avoid losses from raiding elephants. Since 2004, losses declined dramatically, no houses have been destroyed and there have been no loss of human or elephant lives.
