Indonesian Authorities Investigating Cause of Death of Elephant Found in West Aceh River
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21 December 2023 12:29 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A female Sumatran elephant cub (elephas maximus sumatranus) was found dead by residents on the banks of the Krueng Lancong River in Sungai Mas District of West Aceh on Tuesday, December 19. The Aceh Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) has sent a team to the location to investigate the cause of the elephant's death.
"We have sent a team together with a veterinarian to check the animal yesterday afternoon," BKSDA head Gunawan Alza said in Banda Aceh, Wednesday, December 20.
The elephant cub, estimated to be five years old, was found lying on the river bank with its skin peeled off near the areas of its trunk, two front legs, and body parts. It is suspected that the cub had been dead for quite some time.
Gunawan said that he has no information yet about the chronology of the protected animal's death. "We are still waiting for reports from a team on location," he said.
Increasing Cases of Conflict between Humans and Elephant
Over the past five years, the BKSDA has recorded increasing negative interactions between humans and Sumatran elephants, reaching 583 incidents. Between January and October 2023 alone, 85 incidents were recorded.
Most of these negative interactions occurred in Pidie with 145 incidents, followed by Aceh Jaya 86 incidents, East Aceh 67 incidents, and West Aceh with 33 incidents.
To address the increasing number of conflicts between humans and elephants competing for a habitat, the Aceh BKSDA has made various efforts including installing GPS Collars as an early warning system for 18 representatives of wild elephant groups.
The Aceh BKSDA has also installed 27,700 meters of trenches and 61,380 meters of electric fences between 2015 and May 2023. The trenches and fences are placed in several protected wildlife corridors, namely in East Aceh, South Aceh-Subulussalam, Aceh Jaya, Bener Meriah, Pidie, Central Aceh, Bireuen, and West Aceh.
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