Killing of Aceh elephant is an organized crime: Environment Ministry

Idi, Aceh (ANTARA News)- The Environmental Affairs and Forestry Ministry views the killing of a domesticated elephant in the Serbajadi Conservation Response Unit (CRU) in East Aceh District, Aceh Province, as an organized crime.

"The ministry and the Police`s Criminal Investigation Department are committed to investigating the death of the domesticated elephant," veterinarian Indra Exploitasia, director of biodiversity conservation of the ministry, noted at a press conference here, recently.

The criminal case must be investigated thoroughly, and the perpetrators, including the executors and mastermind, must be arrested, he emphasized.

"Elephants are protected under Law No. 5 of 1990 on KSDAE (Conservation of Ecosystem Natural Resources)," he remarked.

Moreover, the species has been included on the appendix 1 of the CITES list, due to which its trade is banned, as they are on the brink of extinction due to human encroachment.

Based on the 2016 census conducted by the Elephant Forum, the population of elephants in Indonesia reaches 1,724 heads.

Elephant poaching is an organized and transnational crime, according to Exploitasia.

The ministry will continue its fight against animal poaching and trafficking of flora and fauna, including ivory, which is in high demand.


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Chicco Jerikho on mission to save Sumatran elephant

Actor Chicco Jerikho is set to conduct a fundraising campaign for the preservation of the Sumatran elephant during his first-ever participation in the London Marathon on April 22.

According to tempo.co, Chicco is inviting the public to donate Rp 100,000 through the Elephantastic Run campaign website until April 23, with all proceeds to go to the conservation program. Registered participants can either run or walk a minimum distance of 5 kilometers anytime, anywhere from April 21 to 23.

Cities included in the Elephantastic Run, which is where the public can join the campaign, are Pekanbaru in Riau on April 15, and Jakarta, Banda Aceh in Aceh and Surabaya in East Java on April 22. The Sumatran elephant population in Riau has sharply declined from 1,300 in 1984 to only 300 to 330 in 2009, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Indonesia and the Riau Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA).

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Pregnant Elephant Found Poisoned At Oil Plantation In Indonesia

At the end of December 2017, a 25 year old pregnant elephant and her unborn baby were found dead on a palm oil plantation in Sumatra. Authorities suspect that the animal had been poisoned by farmers, who blamed the elephant for eating their fertilizer.

She was the 11th elephant to die in the region that year. Saputo Aji Prabowo, head of the Aceh Conservation Center, said:From the autopsy, we saw that its digestive organs turned black which the doctor said was a general indication of poisoning.

Palm Oil: wildlife’s curse

Palm oil production, for many reasons, often has a devastating effect on animals and plants. Over-deforestation has become a problem in the area due to the number of oil plantations, which are growing in number because it is so profitable.

By losing their natural habitat, orangutan and elephant populations have no choice but to move closer to humans to find food, which often results in conflict when they run into humans. Orangutans and elephants in Sumatra are considered critically endangered and if nothing is done, these species will join the list of the many animals that are already extinct.

Scott Blais, the director of the charity Global Sanctuary for Elephants, told website The Dodo:

We must start to see and to recognize each individual as a life with purpose, as someone who is integral to their society and a being who has the right to live within a world that is theirs.

Head of communications for International Animal Resuce, Lis Key said:

It is vital and urgent that solutions are found if we are to stop critically endangered species like the elephant and the orangutan from vanishing forever.

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Tesso Nilo National Park welcomes newborn elephant

The elephant population at the Tesso Nilo National Park in Pelalawan regency, Riau, has grown as a Sumatran elephant gave birth on Tuesday.

The healthy male elephant was named Harmoni Rimbo and quickly became the center of attention at the Tesso Nilo Festival held in the park from Wednesday to Friday.

“The birth of the baby elephant should encourage all concerned parties that there is still hope [for elephants to live] in the Tesso Nilo National Park,” Wiratno, the Environment and Forestry Ministry’s director general for natural resources and the ecosystem, told Antara on Thursday.

Harmoni Rimbo, or simply Har, was born after cross-mating a male wild elephant and a captive female elephant named Ria, which belongs to the Tesso Nilo Elephant Flying Squad, a joint operation of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Indonesia and the Conservation Authority of Riau.

Har is the sixth elephant to be born since the Elephant Flying Squad was formed in 2004.

Ria was detected to be pregnant in May last year. She has already given birth to two elephants, one in 2011 and the second in 2014.

Tesso Nilo Natinal Park chairman Supartono said with the birth of Harmoni Rimbo the park now has eight domesticated elephants.

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Tesso Nilo National Park welcomes newborn elephant

The elephant population at the Tesso Nilo National Park in Pelalawan regency, Riau, has grown as a Sumatran elephant gave birth on Tuesday.

The healthy male elephant was named Harmoni Rimbo and quickly became the center of attention at the Tesso Nilo Festival held in the park from Wednesday to Friday.

“The birth of the baby elephant should encourage all concerned parties that there is still hope [for elephants to live] in the Tesso Nilo National Park,” Wiratno, the Environment and Forestry Ministry’s director general for natural resources and the ecosystem, told Antara on Thursday.

Harmoni Rimbo, or simply Har, was born after cross-mating a male wild elephant and a captive female elephant named Ria, which belongs to the Tesso Nilo Elephant Flying Squad, a joint operation of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Indonesia and the Conservation Authority of Riau.

Har is the sixth elephant to be born since the Elephant Flying Squad was formed in 2004.

Ria was detected to be pregnant in May last year. She has already given birth to two elephants, one in 2011 and the second in 2014.

Tesso Nilo Natinal Park chairman Supartono said with the birth of Harmoni Rimbo the park now has eight healthy male elephant.

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Saba warns of elephant 'holocaust'

"It's such a pleasant, relaxing experience – in Kenya you are never far away from instant death on the roads from potholes, animals or other drivers," she laughs.

The elephant conservationist and TV presenter stopped off in Bewdley to meet its small elephant family during a UK-wide tour promoting her work with elephants in Africa.

With her husband Frank Pope, she runs the Save The Elephants(STE) charity, started by her zoologist father Ian Douglas-Hamilton in 1993. She was born in the Great Rift Valley in Kenya on June 7 at 7pm on the seventh day of the week, and became the seventh grandchild in the family. Her name means 'seven' in Swahili.

She met her first wild animal, an elephant called Virgo, when she was six weeks old and with her sister, Mara, grew up in the African bush learning bush-lore from the rangers and absorbing all there was to know about elephants, just like her own three children now.

Her first job after leaving St Andrews University in Scotland with a Masters degree in social anthropology was with the Save the Rhino Trust in Namibia and she went on to work in academia before joining STE as chief operations officer.

It was here she was talent-spotted by the BBC and has since presented several wildlife series, including Secret Life of Elephants, Unknown Africa and Big Cat Diary.

She currently runs the family’s luxury tented eco-lodge, Elephant Watch Camp, started by her mother Oria, a pioneer in conservation tourism, which offers holidaymakers the chance to live under canvas observing wildlife at close range.

In between times, she lectures extensively to raise awareness about conservation issues. Her message is simple: elephants are in crisis.

She identifies two elephant 'holocausts'. During the first, in the 1970s – 80s, the African elephant population plummeted by half, from 1.3 million to 600,000 in a decade due to the illegal ivory trade .

After a long global campaign, when STE teamed up with CITES(the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), a ban on international ivory trade was brought in and had an immediate effect.

"Almost overnight the price of ivory dropped, except for places like the Congo, and a 25-year ceasefire allowed elephants to recover," says Saba.

"But the South African countries - Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia - were pushing to re-open trade as they felt they were being punished for their good custodianship of their elephant populations."

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Tesso Nilo National Park welcomes newborn elephant

The elephant population at the Tesso Nilo National Park in Pelalawan regency, Riau, has grown as a Sumatran elephant gave birth on Tuesday.

The healthy male elephant was named Harmoni Rimbo and quickly became the center of attention at the Tesso Nilo Festival held in the park from Wednesday to Friday.

“The birth of the baby elephant should encourage all concerned parties that there is still hope [for elephants to live] in the Tesso Nilo National Park,” Wiratno, the Environment and Forestry Ministry’s director general for natural resources and the ecosystem, told Antara on Thursday.

Harmoni Rimbo, or simply Har, was born after cross-mating a male wild elephant and a captive female elephant named Ria, which belongs to the Tesso Nilo Elephant Flying Squad, a joint operation of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Indonesia and the Conservation Authority of Riau.

Har is the sixth elephant to be born since the Elephant Flying Squad was formed in 2004.

Ria was detected to be pregnant in May last year. She has already given birth to two elephants, one in 2011 and the second in 2014.

Tesso Nilo Natinal Park chairman Supartono said with the birth of Harmoni Rimbo the park now has eight domesticated elephants.

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Workers from BKSDA try to examine wounded Sumatran elephant in Indonesia

Workers from Aceh Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) gather to examine a Sumatran elephant after it has been shot by hunters in Aceh, Indonesia on Aug. 16, 2017. BKSDA said that the population of Sumatran elephant has continued to decline in recent years.

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4 states conduct elephant census, population rise documented

Four states came together to coordinate with each other for a composite elephant census and study. The census came to an end on Friday at West Midnapore's Goaltore. On March this year, Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand decided to conduct a census from May 10 to 12.

The dates were deliberately chosen as the sighting of elephants was expected to be easier on the night of May 10, which was a full moon night. Elephant experts often say that these four states together have the maximum numbers of human-elephant conflict.

However, on the other hand, a sizable portion of the population here worships the elephant as a god. In a recent incident, at Goaltore's Dudhpathari, local villagers treated an ailing elephant which was suffering from dehydration.

"We undertook block counting, water hole and line transect dung count methods to count the number of elephants in the region. The data will be compiled in a specific format and sent to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change for analysis," said Vijay Kumar Salimath, the Burdwan DFO.

Block sampling with direct counting method basically means taking samples from the selected block randomly across the entire division. In this method, for each division, approximately 50 per cent of the forest beat areas to be randomly chosen and to be demarcated as census block.

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Indonesian rangers dismantle traps to save wildlife

An Indonesian forest ranger with a trap set up by poachers to capture elephants in the Leuser Ecosystem rainforest, located mostly within the province of Aceh on the island of Sumatra.

LEUSER, Indonesia (AFP) - In the depths of Indonesia's dense Leuser rain forest, a group of rangers are searching for traps set by poachers which are endangering rare wildlife.

Scientists and conservationists consider the Leuser Ecosystem, which falls mostly within Aceh province on Sumatra island, to be among the most important forests left in Southeast Asia.

It is the last place of sufficient size and quality to support viable populations of rare species like orangutans, Sumatran tigers, rhinoceroses, elephants, clouded leopards and sun bears.

"The rangers are trained to track signs indicating that there were poachers in the area, such as by looking for cigarette ends or footsteps," said Rudi Putra, head of the forum.

Some traps are designed to snare animals' feet. Others consist of spears set high up in trees, which would fall when a trap is sprung.

The rangers also watch for signs of deforestation such as illegal logging, and collect data from the forest for further research.

Poachers typically set up traps to capture elephants, tigers and bears so they can sell them illegally and make money.

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Indonesia: Sumatra elephants' habitat continues to shrink: NGO

Bengkulu (ANTARA News) - The habitat of Sumatra elephants (Elephas Maximus Sumatranus), which continues to shrink, has sparked more conflict between the endangered species and humans, an NGO working in the field of nature conservation has said.

"Conflict (with humans) has occurred more often because the habitat of the elephants has continued to shrink. In the latest incident, wild elephants roaming the Gajah Makmur village led to a feeling of restlessness among the villagers," the program coordinator of the Nature Conservation Alliance (Akar) Network, Ali Akbar, said here on Friday.

An investigation conducted by the Akar Network found that the corridor that is the elephants roaming track in the Seblat Nature Tourism Park has increasingly shrunk due to changing patterns of land use.

The cultivation rights awarded to some plantations and illegal land clearing have led to a situation where elephants feel annoyed in their own habitat.

"The wild elephants entering the village came from Seblat Park, having passed through the oil palm plantation of PT Alno to HPT Air Rami, but then found themselves trapped in Air Rami," he explained.

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Critically endangered Sumatran elephant dies in Indonesian zoo, sparking anger from politicians

A critically endangered Sumatran elephant has become the latest animal to die in one of Indonesia's ill-maintained zoos, an official said, sparking anger from activists and politicians.

The 34-year-old female elephant, called Yani, died in the city of Bandung on the island of Java island on Wednesday after falling ill a week earlier.

Many of the country's zoos are in poor condition and house animals in filthy, cramped enclosures.

The most notorious, in the city of Surabaya, has been dubbed the "death zoo" as hundreds of animals have perished there.

Bandung zoo said the cause of Yani's death was yet to be determined but the creature appeared lethargic before she died and pictures showed large sores on her body.

Efforts to save the elephant were hampered as the zoo had been without a resident veterinarian for almost a year, zoo spokesman Sudaryo admitted.

But the spokesman, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, insisted the zoo had done all it could by consulting an outside vet and elephant-keeper and providing medicines.

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Indonesia: Four Sumatran elephants died in Riau in 2016 -- WWF

Pekanbaru (ANTARA News) - The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has said that four Sumatran elephants died in 2016 in Riau Province, a decline from the previous year.

"In 2015, there were 10 cases of dead elephants, while in 2016, the number decreased to four," Spokesperson of WWF of the Riau Program Syamsidar said here on Tuesday.

The four deaths are believed to have occurred due to conflict between humans and wild animals.

Last year, the Tesso Nilo National Park Authority found the carcass of a Sumatran elephant in Pelalawan District.

They also found a Sumatran elephant snared in an industrial forest concession. The animal did not survive despite treatment.

In September last year, an elephant calf was found trapped in a ditch in an industrial forest concession with wounds all over its body.

"An elephant also died after being electrocuted in Duri region, near a residential area," Syamsidar said.

No suspects were either identified or arrested in these cases, Syamsidar said.

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