Jakarta Globe, Nurdin Hasan, December 3, 2013
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| Kids gather around a 2-year-old elephant cub left behind by its pack and looked after by residents of Blang Pante village in North Aceh district in this June 23, 2013 file photo. The animal died two months after it was found. (Photo courtesy of Silfa) |
Banda Aceh.
A female Sumatran elephant, estimated to be seven years old, died last week in
the district of Aceh Jaya, the sixth elephant death this year in Aceh.
The carcass
was found on a river bank in Masen village in the subdistrict of Sampoiniet,
Aceh Jaya, on Monday. The animal was estimated to have died a week ago and
investigators could not confirm the cause of death on Dec. 3.
“Local
residents said the elephant died because it was caught in a trap — there’s a
rope on its leg,” Amon Zamora, the head of Aceh’s Natural Resources
Conservation Agency (BKSDA), told the Jakarta Globe on Tuesday. “The BKSDA team
sent to the location is still conducting an investigation.”
Amon said
the team was performing an autopsy to investigate the cause of the death,
including whether or not the animal had been poisoned — am increasingly common
cause of elephant deaths in Aceh.
The recent
finding brings the number of elephants found dead in Aceh in 2013 to six.
In May, a
10-year-old male elephant died due to electrocution in Bangkeh village in the
Pidie district.
In June, a
two-year-old elephant cub died in Blang Plante village in North Aceh, two months
after villagers took the animal in after it was left behind by its pack in a
nearby plantation.
On July 13,
a 30-year-old male elephant was found dead in Ranto Sabon village in Aceh Jaya
after being caught in a metal trap.
On July 27,
two elephant carcasses were found decaying in an oil palm plantation run by
state-owned plantation firm PTPN I in Blang Tualang village in East Aceh
district.
Amon said
elephant-human conflicts had become widespread across 19 out of 23 districts
and municipalities in Aceh, with Aceh Jaya, East Aceh, Pidie, South Aceh,
Singkil and North Aceh reporting the most problems.
“The
conflicts keep happening because the routes used by elephants have been
converted into plantations,” he said. “We’ve called on people several times
against disturbing the elephants’ pathway, but it keeps happening.”
Amon said
only around 200 Sumatrans elephants remained in the wild in Aceh forests.
The
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has classified Sumatran
elephants as critically endangered. The population in the wild — spread over
Sumatra and Borneo — is estimated at between 2,400 and 2,800 individuals.
The
Worldwide Fund for Nature says around 70 percent of the Sumatran elephant’s
habitat has been destroyed by deforestation in the last 25 years.
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