Wild elephants occupy part of village for two weeks

Antara 19 Mar 10;

Bengkalis (ANTARA News) - A herd of hungry wild elephants have been occupying two residential areas of Petani village, Bengkalis, Riau, over the past two weeks forcing tens of families to flee their homes.

Petani village residents said the elephants were still in their part of the village on Thursday but their number had dropped from initially 45 to a few.

"For the past two weeks we have been staying in the homes of people in another part of our village located far from where the elephants are," one of the displaced inhabitants of Petani village , Raya (45), said.

He said he and his fellow villagers had made no effort to drive the animals away because they were afraid it would make the giant mammals only more aggressive and attack them.

Petani village head Riantono admitted he could not do much for his people but had appealed to them to be alert to the danger the wild beasts posed, especially at night.

He said he had also asked his people to watch out in the afternoon because the animals could come at any time and tear apart their houses to find food.

"As village head I do not know what I have to do. I can only make appeals. We cannot kill them because, if we do, we will get into trouble with the law," he said.

Local environment activists meanwhile said no concrete actions had been taken so far by the authorities to prevent conflicts between humans and elephants in Bengkalis.

"The problem has so far been only talked about while no concrete actions have been taken by the government or agencies concerned," Simamora, the chief of the Care for Nature and Environment Community Movement, said.

He said, if the problem remained unsolved, it was not impossible the local people would fight the elephants in their own way , and then fatalities could happen on either side.Many people had already been killed in clashes with the animals.(*)

Riau Villagers’ Hands Tied as Herd Of Elephants Refuses to Leave
Budi Otmansyah Jakarta Globe 19 Mar 10;

Pekanbaru. For the past two weeks, residents of Petani village in Bengkalis district have been woken up in the early hours of the morning to the sounds of an elephant herd invasion.

Riantomo, the head of the village, said residents had been forced to evacuate out of fear, moving into the homes of their relatives.

“We don’t know what we have to do. We are prohibited from disturbing elephants because they are protected. But in the meantime we are always disturbed,” Riantomo said.

He said the daily invasion usually occurred at about 2 a.m., with elephants roaming around the homes. Some of the residents have tried shooing them away using torches and wood, but the herd of elephants seems reluctant to leave.

“We have shooed the elephants away repeatedly, but they still come back here. As the village head I do not know what I have to do. I can only make appeals. We cannot kill them because, if we do, we will get into trouble with the law,” he said.

The head of Riau’s Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BBKSDA), Trisnu Danisworo, said that as a temporary solution a team had been assigned to the village to keep elephants away from homes and plantations and to prevent conflicts between elephants and humans.

“The elephant conflict in Petani village is an old problem. It is because that area is a track for elephants. For now, we can just shoo them out of residential areas,” he said.

A longer-term solution for Petani village’s dilemma, he said, was to ensure that residential and plantation developments in the future do not encroach on the elephants’ habitat.

“The conversion of land into plantations in that area must be stopped,” he said.

The forests on Riau are dis­appearing, and this has seen the province’s elephant population plunge from more than 1,500 in the 1980s to 350 today.

Darori, the Ministry of Forestry’s director general of forest protection and nature conservation, said the elephant attacks occurred because more and more people were cutting down trees.

“The movements of the elephants are actually very ordered. They will always walk along the same paths and eat at the same places over and over again. They will even litter at the same spots,” Darori said, adding that the local administration had failed to discipline companies or officials who cut down trees on land that is known to be vital for the elephants’ survival.

Local environment activists said no concrete actions had been taken so far to prevent conflicts between humans and elephants in Bengkalis.

“The problem has so far been only talked about while no concrete actions have been taken by the government or agencies concerned,” said Simamora, chief of the Care for Nature and Environment Community Movement.

He said that with no solutions it was likely the locals would fight the elephants in their own way, and then fatalities could happen on either side. Many people have already been killed in clashes with the animals.

Additional reporting from Antara

Petani village residents threaten to kill invading elephants
Antara 20 Mar 10;

Bengkalis (ANTARA News) - Petani village residents in Mandau subdistrict, Bengaklis district, Riau province, are threatening to kill the wild elephants that have been disturbing their lives for weeks if the authorities fail to take action.

"We are now at the end of our patience with these animals. They have damaged our homes and often threaten our safety. So, if the government does not provide a way out soon, we will drive them away or catch them ourselves and kill them. if necessary," Fahri (46), Petani village resident said Saturday.

A similar statement was made by another Petani resident, Karman (60), who said he saw his house being destroyed by wild elephants while he could do nothing to stop it.

"There must be a choice : elephants or humans. If the animals are really protected by the state, then the state must also guarantee the safety of the people who live near their habitat. The government should not wait until there are casualties," Karman said.

In response to the villagers` sentiments, the chairman of the Benkalis branch of the Nature and Environment Community Care Movement (Gempal), H. Simamora,
admitted the authorities had not been handling the recurring problem of wild elephant incursions into human settlements seriourly.

The problem was often discussed in meetings and touched on in familiarization efforts but no concrete followup action was ever taken in the field.

In the recurring conflicts between wild elephants and humans many animals and humans had already been harmed or killed and it was time for the authorities to take real action, if the protected animal was to be saved from extinction.

One of the ways the authorities should pursue, he said, was to set up more elephant training centers in the wild or expand existing ones. To accomplish this, regional authorities should not wait until they receive the needed funds from the central government but use their own financial resources.

"If they wait for financial aid from the central government, it will never happen," he said.

Petani villagers had been terrorized by wild elephant herds repeatedly since early March 2010. A number of houses in the village were ruined by the huge beasts that were apparently looking for food. (*)