The 18-year-old elephant was found dead in an oil palm plantation in Krueng Ayon village, Sampoiniet sub-district, Aceh Jaya. (ANTARA/Irwansyah Putra)
Banda Aceh, Aceh (ANTARA News) - Environment organization WWF Indonesia has urged the concerned authorities to investigate the death of an elephant believed to have been poisoned in Aceh Jaya, in order to prevent future such recurrences.
"We urge law agencies and the authorities concerned to immediately investigate the death of a female elephant in Aceh Jaya and find the perpetrators," said WWF Indonesia Programme Leader Dede Suhendra here on Wednesday.
The 18-year-old elephant was found dead in an oil palm plantation in Krueng Ayon village, Sampoiniet sub-district, Aceh Jaya, and was believed to have been poisoned.
Dede emphasized the need to conduct an investigation to determine whether the protected animal had really been poisoned or not.
"If the cause of the death is really poisoning, law enforcers must find the perpetrator and punish him so that the incident will not happen again in the future," he stressed.
He believed the elephant`s death is the consequence of a protracted conflict between humans and animals in the region.
The habitat of wild animals - especially protected ones such as elephants, tigers and orangutans - is continuously under depletion due to massive deforestation, which causes the animals to enter villages and damage villagers` crops and cattle.
Dede remarked that the conflict must be ended immediately, so that the animals can return to their habitat.
For this, all parties including the government must together determine how to protect the animals and stop them from entering villages in the future, he added.
Meanwhile, the Sampoiniet Conservation Response Unit (CRU) chief ranger Muchtar expressed his belief that the elephant had died three days ago, adding that the animal`s body was found on the road between SP Empat and SP Lima, which is a resettlement area.
The elephant has a male offspring around 1.5 years old, who is still roaming around in the area where his mother died, the ranger remarked.
The chief of the animal protection section of the Aceh Jaya Forestry and Plantation Service, Armidi, said in Calang on Wednesday that there have been numerous cases of interference by wild elephants in the last seven years. He added that the service, along with the Natural Resource Conservation Agency (BKSDA) and the CRU of Fauna-Flora International (FFI), are continuing their efforts to overcome the conflict between animals and villagers.
According to Armidi, this has been the first elephant death case in Aceh Jaya. He said that the SP 4 and SP 5 areas used to be elephant habitat, although most of this land has been converted into a resettlement area.
Meanwhile, Muchtar reported that the dead elephant was buried on Tuesday.
(T.KR-IRW/Uu.H-YH/INE/KR-BSR)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
WWF Indonesia Calls For Probe Into Elephant Death
Jakarta Globe2 May 12;
Environmental organization WWF called on the government Wednesday to investigate the death of a critically endangered Sumatran elephant allegedly poisoned at an Indonesian oil palm plantation.
A ranger at the plantation in Aceh Jaya on Sumatra island said he found the 18-year-old female elephant dying on Monday and that locals reported they had seen it walking around with a calf earlier that day.
“We call on the authorities to investigate how the elephant died. If she died from poisoning, we hope authorities will do something about educating locals,” WWF’s Aceh program leader Dede Suhendra told AFP.
“People here in Sumatra who own plantations and farms often kill elephants, tigers too, because they see them as pests.”
Mukhtar, the ranger, said he believed the elephant had been poisoned.
“When I found her, she was foaming at the mouth and bleeding from the rectum, which are strong signs of poisoning,” he said, adding that he was unable to save her with medicine.
Mukhtar said the elephant’s calf was “crying” and “making noises” of distress as it stood by its mother dying on the ground.
Suhendra said that conflict between animals in the jungle and humans had increased in the past decade as swathes of forest are cleared for agriculture.
WWF changed the Sumatran elephant’s status from “endangered” to “critically endangered” in January, largely due to severe habitat loss driven by oil palm and paper plantations.
There are less than 3,000 Sumatran elephants remaining in the wild, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, marking a 50 percent drop in numbers since 1985.
Agence France-Presse
Sumatran Elephant Found Poisoned in Indonesia
Jakarta Globe 2 May 12;
Banda Aceh, Indonesia. A ranger says an endangered Sumatran elephant has died in a palm oil plantation in western Indonesia, apparently after being poisoned by villagers trying to protect their crops.
Fewer than 3,000 of the animals are left in the wild and environmentalists warn they could be extinct within three decades unless steps are taken to protect them.
Mukhtar, a ranger with Fauna-Flora International, says the 18-year-old elephant was not yet dead when she was found Monday in Aceh province.
Rangers unsuccessfully tried to save her by giving her medicine.
Mukhtar said it is not uncommon for elephants to be poisoned. As forests disappear, elephants stray into inhabited areas in search of food. Villagers trying to protect their property sometimes leave fruits laced with cyanide.
Associated Press