Elephant killed for ivory in East Aceh

A male elephant was found dead from poisoning in East Aceh, Aceh, on Sunday. One of its tusks had been removed. Bunta, 27, was part of the Conservation Response Unit (CRU) elephant team, which wards off wild elephants trying to enter the area. Bunta and three other elephants had been stationed at CRU Serbajadi in Bunin village, Serbajadi district, East Aceh, Aceh, since January 2016. The team was tasked with preventing animal-human conflicts in the area. Bunta was the main police elephant at CRU Serbajadi, which was visited by Hollywood actor Leonardo Di Caprio in March 2016. Based on information provided by the CRU Serbajadi team on Sunday, Bunta was found dead when a mahout went to relocate him from a forest located 500 meters from the CRU base camp to another area at 8 a.m. local time. He saw Bunta lying on the ground dead with one of his tusks missing. The mahout reported the incident to the Serbajadi Police, who forwarded the report to the East Aceh Police. East Aceh Police chief Adj.Sr.Comr.Wahyu Kuncoro said it appeared that the elephant had eaten poison-laced bananas and mangoes. “We are waiting for the […] the Aceh Natural Resources Conservation Agency’s veterinarian team to reveal cause of death.” (ebf)


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Poachers blamed in second Sumatran elephant death this year

AUTHORITIES in Indonesia have blamed poachers for the death of an elephant found with one of its tusks hacked off, in one of the world’s most biodiverse and threatened habitats.

The 27-year-old male Sumatran elephant, named Bunta, had since 2016 been regularly trained and employed by forest rangers in Aceh province as part of a unit to ward off wild elephants encroaching on farms and villages.

His body was found June 9 by forest rangers inside the Leuser Ecosystem, one of Indonesia’s last large tracts of intact rainforest, which is home to four of the most iconic and critically endangered species on Earth: the Sumatran elephant, tiger, rhino and orangutan.

Citing damage to the elephant’s digestive tract, and traces from fruit found near the carcass, officials from the Aceh conservation agency, or BKSDA, say it was likely that Bunta was poisoned — a common tactic used by poachers and farmers in the region.

“After the elephant died, one of its tusks was taken by slicing open its cheek,” Wahyu Kuncoro, of the East Aceh district police, told reporters a day after the body was found.

Sapto Aji Prabowo, the head of the Aceh BKSDA, lamented the elephant’s death and called on law enforcement to bring the perpetrators to justice.

“There’s a human who heartlessly killed this tame animal, this can’t be accepted by reason,” he said.

“We are absolutely at a loss at the passing of this male elephant,” he added. “Bunta was one of the elephants that we really relied on [for forest patrols].”

Under Indonesian conservation law, the killing, trading or distribution of protected species and their parts can incur jail sentences of up to five years and fines of up to 100 million rupiah ($7,160). But law enforcement on wildlife killings remains weak, with offenders rarely prosecuted. On the few occasions that cases make their way to court, the perpetrators typically receive token sentences or fines far below the maximum.


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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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