BKSDA Giring Gajah Liar From Pelalawan Riau

PeKANBARU - Riau Province Natural Resources Conservation Center through three tame elephants from the Minas Elephant Training Center (PLG) led two wild elephants that had moved out of their habitat to Pangkalan Kerinci District, Pelalawan Regency, Riau, since early January 2024.

Head of Region I of the Riau KSDA Center, Andri Hansen Siregar, said that efforts to drive wild elephants back into their habitat were carried out by a joint team.

Apart from the Riau KSDA Center, there are also the National Park Office of Teso Nilo, TNI, Polri, local governments and several local communities in the capital city of Pelalawan Regency.

"However, there were problems with flooding on the route to the elephant habitat in the Tesso Nilo landscape so that the elephant movement was limited. Finally, the two elephants were brought together last Thursday (1/2)," he said as quoted by ANTARA, Friday, February 2.

The translocation began on January 17, 2024, with a joint team and several community institutions holding joint meetings at the Pelalawan Regency Regent's Office. At that time, the process of returning to the habitat of the Tesso Nilo landscape was impossible.

Then only on Thursday (25/1) the joint team and the community began to evacuate to one of the elephant habitat pockets in Riau. On Saturday (27/01) the team managed to evacuate one wild elephant with an estimated age of seven and was given the initials the name HASNAN. One other wild elephant has not been successfully evacuated," he said.

"On Tuesday (29/1) to maintain safety and maintain its natural nature, Hasnan was successfully released to the elephant habitat location in Riau," he said.

Furthermore, on Wednesday (31/1) another wild elephant was successfully evacuated and given the initials the name BAHRI. At around 21.00 WIB, the team also made efforts to translocate to elephant habitat bags in Riau Province.

Gajah Bahri's release was carried out in the pockets of wild elephant habitat, whose population is predominantly female. So that with the presence of an individual Bahri male elephant, it is hoped that there will be a balance of sex ratios in the wild elephant population.

"The team will continue to monitor after the translocation process. The Riau KSDA Center expresses its gratitude for the support from various parties during the translocation process," he said.