Elephant Tramples Man to Death at Aceh Farm

Nurdin Hasan Jakarta Globe 21 Jun 11;

Banda Aceh. A rampaging elephant killed a rubber plantation worker on Monday in Pante Ceureumen, Aceh, officials said the following day.

Nur Yasin, head of Pante Ceureumen, told the Jakarta Globe that the attack occurred around 3 p.m. at the Sari Inti Rakyat plantation in Menuang Kinco village.

“All of a sudden an elephant came running out of the forest at the edge of the plantation, knocked down the foreman and started trampling him,” he said.

“Some plantation workers tried to shoo the animal away, but it didn’t work.”

He said the victim, identified as Khalidin, 40, died at the scene due to severe injuries.

Ramli, the village head, said four workers nearby were unwilling to try to stop the attack because they were scared of getting trampled as well.

“None of them dared go near the elephant,” he said.

“They were afraid that they’d be next.”

He added that the body was removed from the scene only after the elephant had returned to the forest two hours later.

Nur said this was the latest in a long list of human-elephant incidents in the area. He said despite the loss of lives and property as a result of the animals running rampant in farms and villages, authorities had failed to do anything to prevent more attacks from happening.

“We’ve sent several letters appealing to wildlife authorities to relocate the elephants, but they have yet to respond,” he said.

Calls by the Globe to Abubakar Chekmat, head of the Aceh Natural Resources Conservation Agency, were not answered.

The agency has attributed the escalation in such conflicts to man’s encroachment into the elephants’ natural habitat.