A Herd Of Wild Elephants Damaged Houses And Gardens Of West Coast Residents

WESTERN COASTAL - A herd of wild elephants in Pekon (Village) Ulok Mukti, Ngambur District, West Coast Regency, Lampung, entered settlements and damaged houses and gardens belonging to residents.

Head of Ulok Mukti Village, AHibson, said that the wild elephants that entered the residential area had been happening for the past two days.

"What was observed by the community was that there were around 18 wild elephants, which were damaged by houses, oil palm plantations, banana plantations, and betel nut plantations," Hibson said as quoted by ANTARA, Saturday, December 2.

He estimates that the losses suffered by the community due to wild elephants entered the settlement of around Rp. 1 billion.

"The loss suffered by the residents was almost Rp. 1 billion, because almost all plantations of residents and semi-permanent houses were also damaged," he said.

Residents have not seen a herd of wild elephants for a long time, but the elephant has returned for the last few days and damaged residents' plants.

"Indeed, the herd of wild elephants has not been seen for a long time, last 1990 to 1992 entered the area, and has not appeared again for a long time," said Hibson.

Rulsan, a resident of Ulok Mukti Village, said the herd of elephants began to be seen entering on November 30, 2023.

"Elephants began to be seen on Thursday (30/11), around 20.00 WIB. These elephants began to approach the hut at around 02.00 WIB, then they began to damage our huts," said Rulsan.

He said a herd of wild elephants came from the Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park (TNBBS). "When the incident happened, we tried to block it from coming here again. The elephant was a resident of TNBBS, so we prevented it from entering the forest again. At this time we are still on guard," he said.