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Saving the Big Cats

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Editor

8 September 2016 16:42 WIB

A Sumatran Tiger (Panthera Tigris Sumatrae). Tiger population in Indonesia showing rapid decrease because of rampant deforestation. ANTARA/Maulana Surya

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - His name is short: Lancar (smooth), but the job entrusted to him is often not as smooth as his name would suggest. Lancar is a homeroom teacher for a cohort of students in the forest, deep in the hinterland of Jambi's Bukit Tigapuluh. The place is accessible from Kota Rengat, a small town located around 435 kilometers from the provincial capital, Jambi City, after a day's drive or sailing and a walk. Lancar teaches 20 students of ages ranging from 7 to 20-years old.

The subjects taught in Lancar's class are a rarity. Take, for example, environmental ecology, a subject that until several years ago was foreign to the isolated residents on Bukit Tigapuluh. The students learn not in a traditional classroom but a learning studio. The purpose is to make the elementary school more flexible for the students in the Bukit Tigapuluh hinterland most of the students belong to the Talang Mamak tribe. No other elementary school exists in this remote corner of Sumatra.

In class, teachers like Lancar impart knowledge about the environment for the sake of natural preservation. One focus for preservation is the Sumatran tigers (Panthera tigris sumatrae), which are now at the brink of extinction.

Lancer said the effort to educate the local people about protecting the Sumatran tigers would be more effective if it went together with other lessons in the classroom. Lancar, 42, mentioned the natural interdependence in the chain of life. For instance, the population of wild hogs in the forest would increase if the Sumatran tigers, the hogs' natural predators, go extinct a horror to the Tulang Mamak since the wild hogs would destroy their gardens. 

"Our village will remain safe as long as the Sumatran tigers are still around," Lancar told his students.

In the forest that also serves as an animal sanctuary and fenced in by the Indragiri River, the Talang Mamak tribe lives alongside the Sumatran tigers and other beasts. The tigers, in particular, are called the datuk (ancestor) that the tribe respects. Consequently, most in the tribe are loath to disturb them. Even the coming of one to their compound is a bad omen for members of the tribe someone in the tribe has committed something immoral. 

"For us, the tiger is not an enemy but a being that takes care of the community and the environment," Lancar said three weeks ago. (*)

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