ID :
65419
Thu, 06/11/2009 - 19:51
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https://www.oananews.org//node/65419
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FOUR ELEPHANTS' DEATH DUE TO POISONING : OFFICIAL
Pekanbaru, Riau, June 11 (ANTARA) - Four Sumatran elephants (Elephas maximus sumatranus) which were recently found dead in a forest concession area in Riau had been deliberately poisoned, a local nature conservation official said.
"The elephants were deliberately killed with organophosphate pesticide which is usually used to kill animals such as boars," Edi Susanto, head of the Riau Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA), told ANTARA here on Thursday.
The four elephants were found dead last May in a concession area of PT Rimba Peranap Indah (RPI), a subsidiary of PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (RAPP) which shares a border with an oil palm plantation owned by state plantation company PT PN V, located on the border between Pelalawan and Indragiri Hulu districts, he said.
The poisoned elephants included a 20-year-old female and a 5-year-old calf. The carcass of a third elephant was found in burned condition.
Laboratory tests conducted on samples of what the dead elephants had eaten showed that that they had been poisoned and the type of e poison was now also known. BKSDA also found evidence of poison at the site where the poor animals were found. The poison had been spread on leaves and the stems of palm fruit bunches.
"There was a lot of poison spread on oil palm stems and leaves in areas within a radius of one kilometer from the site where the dead animals were found," he said.
BKSDA had reported the incident to the police and called for an investigation to catch the animals' killers , he said.
He strongly suspected that the animals' deaths were a sequel in the conflict between Sumatran elephants and humans as the Peranap area is within the elephants' home range inside Tesso Nilo National Park.
"This is an extraordinary happening because four elephants were found dead within a week. So, the legal process against the culprits must be pursued," he said.
Meanwhile, Syamsidar, a spokesman of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Riau, said there was no excuse for the police to shelve the case because there was sufficient evidence that a crime had been committed.
Under exisitng law, a person who kills a protected animal faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of up to Rp200 million.
The Peranap police in Indragiri Hulu are now investigating the case.
"The elephants were deliberately killed with organophosphate pesticide which is usually used to kill animals such as boars," Edi Susanto, head of the Riau Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA), told ANTARA here on Thursday.
The four elephants were found dead last May in a concession area of PT Rimba Peranap Indah (RPI), a subsidiary of PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (RAPP) which shares a border with an oil palm plantation owned by state plantation company PT PN V, located on the border between Pelalawan and Indragiri Hulu districts, he said.
The poisoned elephants included a 20-year-old female and a 5-year-old calf. The carcass of a third elephant was found in burned condition.
Laboratory tests conducted on samples of what the dead elephants had eaten showed that that they had been poisoned and the type of e poison was now also known. BKSDA also found evidence of poison at the site where the poor animals were found. The poison had been spread on leaves and the stems of palm fruit bunches.
"There was a lot of poison spread on oil palm stems and leaves in areas within a radius of one kilometer from the site where the dead animals were found," he said.
BKSDA had reported the incident to the police and called for an investigation to catch the animals' killers , he said.
He strongly suspected that the animals' deaths were a sequel in the conflict between Sumatran elephants and humans as the Peranap area is within the elephants' home range inside Tesso Nilo National Park.
"This is an extraordinary happening because four elephants were found dead within a week. So, the legal process against the culprits must be pursued," he said.
Meanwhile, Syamsidar, a spokesman of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Riau, said there was no excuse for the police to shelve the case because there was sufficient evidence that a crime had been committed.
Under exisitng law, a person who kills a protected animal faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of up to Rp200 million.
The Peranap police in Indragiri Hulu are now investigating the case.
