Wild Tigers, Elephants Still Exist in South Sumatra, Says Regent
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31 December 2019 16:51 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - South Sumatra’s Musi Banyuasin Regent Dodi Reza Alex on Tuesday, December 31, announced that the region’s forests are still home to dozens of wild tigers and elephants. Sightings of the endangered species could be seen at the PT REKI (Indonesia ecosystem restoration) forest located in Batanghari Leko and other sub-districts.
He called for people to collectively engage in attempts to prevent conflicts between wild animals and the locals, and also preserve the wildlife’s ecosystem.
“We must befriend the nature and never let the animals’ habitat be destroyed,” said Dodi Reza in the area’s year-end event on Monday. December 30.
The Regent also talked about the local government’s attempts to preserve local wildlife through several partnerships with pro-nature organizations such as Forkopmida and actively engage in nature preservation programs such as the KELOLA project.
The latter is a project that handles human-wildlife conflicts and animal habitat preservation. In Sembilang, a restoration program for the area’s wildlife was commenced since 2017 and resulted in the recent finding by the local wildlife team that identified a population of 22 wild elephants and roughly up to 10 tigers.
Meanwhile, in Dangku, 15-20 tigers and 8 elephants have been identified living within the PT REKI forests.
Parliza Hendrawan
