THREE ELEPHANTS DIE OF SUSPECTED POISONING IN RIAU

Pekanbaru, June 2 (ANTARA) - Three elephants were found dead in a forest concession area of PT Rimba Peranap Indah (RPI), a subsidiary of PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (RAPP), probably of poisoning, a local official said.

"The company must be responsible for the safety of those elephants because the spot where they were found dead was still within their home range. The three elephants died of apparent poisoning at a location on forest land managed by RPI," Edy Susanto, head of the Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA), said here on Tuesday.

The carcass of one of the elephants was found on Monday (June 1) and those of the two others last Thursday (May 28) in an industrial crop forest (HTI) of PT RPI, he said.

The three elephants were believed to have died of poison. Autopsies were conducted on the two carcasses found last week but the result was not available yet as organ samples of the dead elephants were sent to the Bukit Tinggi (West Sumatra) and Bogor (West Java) veterinary test and research offices, he said.

"The location where the dead elephants were found, is not far from an oil palm plantation area adjoining the RPI's industrial crop forest," he said.

The oil palm plantation was managed by local people with the assistance of state-owned plantation company PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PN) V.

Some local people and staff of the plantation company often complained that elephants always came to the area and ate oil palm trees, he said.

The area used to be the habitat of the elephants but it had been converted into an oil palm plantation and acacia forest, he said.

"Those dead elephants were part of a herd consisting of around 15 elephants whose home range was delineated by a line between Peranap, Tesso Nilo and Kuantan Singingi. They always move on the same route ," he said.

BKSDA was currently coordinating with the local police to investigate tho cause of the death of the protected animals, he said.

He also urged the plantation company PT RPI to help protect elephants.

"The PT RPI area used to be an elephant habitat. The company's management should take care of the elephant habitat," he said.