IN THE FORESTS NEAR PEKANBARU, SUMATRA, CONSERVATIONISTS HAVE A NOVEL SOLUTION FOR THEIR WILD ELEPHANT CHALLENGE – IMPROVING THE CHANCES OF CO-EXISTENCE. HARUMI SUPIT MEETS THE FLYING SQUAD

First there is a glimpse of grey through the brush. Then with a great, violent snapping and breaking of twigs and branches, the wild elephants break cover, retreating from another group of elephants. However, this group is visibly different, sporting mounted mahouts (rangers). Reluctantly, the wild herd retreat into deeper forest and away from human habitation.

Such battles of the forested kind are all in a day’s work for the mighty Tesso Nilo Elephant Flying Squad, part of a program which aims to reduce conflicts between endangered Sumatran elephants and their human neighbors in the increasingly crowded province of Riau, Sumatra. “In Tesso Nilo, we have routine patrols of elephants on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 8am until 5pm,” says four-year-program veteran Syamsuardi Sulam, co-ordinator of the Flying Squad. “The areas that we patrol are the wild elephant ‘gates’.”

At present, the squad comprises four elephants and nine mahouts, each equipped with noise and light-making devices, plus one pick-up truck. Originally used in India in 2004, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) decided to test the program in Lubuk Kembang Bunga village on the south-east border of Riau’s Tesso Nilo National Park.

Riau’s forests contain some of the most essential habitats for wild Sumatran elephants. Unfortunately, these forests have also attracted the attention of loggers, including giant paper company Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), which has built two large pulp mills in the province. Cleared land can also be converted into increasingly lucrative palm oil plantations. According to the WWF, the province has lost 65 per cent of its forests over the past 25 years.

So what is a hungry elephant to do when its forest disappears? It goes foraging, sometimes destroying gardens and buildings in its way. While female elephants tend to be more timid, bull elephants have been known to lumber through villages, or to devastate young palm oil plantations, which are “like candy for the elephant”, explains Desmarita Murni, WWF communications coordinator for Indonesia.

Apart from their regular patrol hours, the mahouts are on-call 24 hours a day. They use a variety of techniques to chase away wild elephants, starting with noise-makers made of PVC pipes loaded with carbide, which make a loud boom sound when lit. If this doesn’t work, mahouts will escalate their response, assembling the trained elephants to drive off their wild counterparts.

Sulam says the program has been very effective so far. While it took a little while to gain acceptance, enough residents in Lubuk Kembang Bunga now feel secure enough from the wild elephant attacks thanks to the Flying Squad’s intervention. In the past three years most villagers have turned to agriculture for a living, instead of foraging in the forest. Elephant killings have been reduced as the villagers now have a non-violent alternative to poisoning the animals. “We’ve had zero elephant deaths this year,” he notes proudly.

The WWF and its partners admit that the Elephant Flying Squad is only a short-term solution to more underlying problems. If the forest continues to be destroyed, the animals will ultimately have nowhere to live. In 2007, it was estimated that there were just over 200 wild elephants left, a critical number which could signal future local extinction, not just for elephants but for the tigers and isolated Orang Rimba forest tribe as well.

Funding is also a challenge. A minimum of IDR25 million (US$2,703) is needed per month to fund operational costs. Ironically, palm oil companies may offer a middle ground solution: these publically-visible companies have both the resources and incentives to fund such activities, in order to protect their crude palm oil plantations against elephant damage in a non-violent manner.

In an ideal world, there would be no need for the Flying Squad – but with no immediate long-term solution in sight, the squad bravely flies on.

Contacts

To see how you can help the Flying Squad, visit the World Wildlife Fund Indonesia’s website at www.wwf.or.id and find out how you can donate, volunteer or assist.