Pekanbaru, Riau (ANTARA Jambi) - Elephant-human conflict at Tesso Nillo National Park (TNTN) in Sumatra has inflicted material losses worth more than Rp1.99 billion over the past nine years, according to WWF.
More than 100 elephants had been killed in Riau Province, since 2004 mainly due to elephant-human conflict, Syamsidar, a spokesman of WWF Riau office, said.
Almost all of the elephants were died of poisoning because the animals were regarded as pests that damaged plantations, he added.
The population of elephant in Riau Province is estimated at 300, Syamsidar, he said.
Nineteen elephants had been poisoned to death over the past two years. In 2012, 12 dead elephants were found in the Tesso Nilo National Park and three others in somewhere else.
Up to September this year, four elephants were killed in the national park. All cases of the elephant deaths remained unsolved, he said.
To mitigate the elephant-human conflict, WWF in cooperation with the Riau natural resources conservation agency (BKSD) and the TNTN management has deployed an elephant Flying Squad since April 2004.
The squad is a rapid response unit made up of specially trained domestic elephants and their mahouts (riders). The squad is tasked to herd the animals back into the forest.(Ant)
