The Jakarta Post 11 Aug 18;
The East Aceh Police and Aceh Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) are investigating the death of an elephant that was found on Friday in Cek Mbon village in Aceh province.
The elephant still had its tusks when it was discovered by a villager.
The BKSDA’s medical team has conducted an autopsy on the carcass and found that the liver, spleen, heart and lungs had darkened, which suggests poison.
However, the BKSDA and East Aceh Police also found electrical wires installed on the fence owned by locals not far from where the elephant was killed, which does not rule out the possibility that the animal had been electrocuted.
The elephant’s tissue samples will be sent to a forensics laboratory in Medan, North Sumatra, where they will be examined to determine a cause of death.
“The results will take one to three months,” Sapto Edi, head of the Aceh BKSDA, said on Thursday as reported by kompas.com. “It was a male elephant, about 15 years old. Its tusks were 76 centimeters long.
A Cek Mbon villager named Herman found the elephant on Friday. He reported his finding to the village head, who then went to the East Aceh Police. (sau/ahw)
