Jakarta Globe, October 13, 2010
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| A male Sumatran tiger is kept in a cage as he awaits transfer from a conservation center in Aceh province to a safari park in West Java in April this year. One of the critically endangered tigers attacked and killed a farmer in the province, an official said on Tuesday. The World Wide Fund for Nature has warned that the Sumatran tiger could be extinct within a decade due to poaching and illegal logging. (Reuters Photo) |
Banda Aceh. A rare Sumatran tiger attacked and killed an Indonesian farmer in Aceh province at the northern tip of the island of Sumatra, an official said on Tuesday.
The big cat mauled the 25-year-old man in South Aceh district, local sub-district chief Erwiandi said.
“The victim, Martunis, was working at a chili plantation at Mount Serindit on Monday. He failed to return home that day,” Erwiandi said.
“The bones of his body and arms were found this morning along with tiger’s body hair. The remaining parts are only the head, legs and feet,” he said.
Human-animal conflicts are a growing problem in the Indonesian archipelago, as forests are destroyed for timber or to make way for crops, forcing animals such as tigers and elephants into closer contact with people.
Tigers were blamed for the deaths of a palm oil worker in September and a rubber plantation worker in August, both attacks occurred in Sumatra island.
There are fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild, according to the environmental group WWF.
The attack came on the same day that new infra-red footage was released capturing a Sumatran tiger roaming in protected forests, which conservationists alleged to have been illegally cleared.
The video captured in May and June this year was released by environmental group WWF, which has been monitoring Sumatran tigers since last year in a wildlife preserve near Bukit Tigapuluh national park in Riau province.
In one clip, a male Sumatran tiger was seen walking towards a camera and sniffing it.
About a week later, a bulldozer was seen flattening land at the same spot, believed to be making way for roads to new palm-oil plantations, WWF spokeswoman Desmarita Murni said.
"There were strong indications of illegal land-clearing activities and this must be investigated. The video showed concrete evidence that there were threats to tigers in this area," she added.
The WWF said it had reported the land clearing in the Bukit Batabuh area to the authorities and "the operations have since stopped."
"But we don't know when they will come back, so we're urging for monitoring to be intensified in the area," Murni said.
Human-animal conflicts are a rising problem as people encroach on wildlife habitats in Indonesia, an archipelago with some of the world's largest remaining tropical forests.
Agence France-Presse
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