The Appearance Of Tigers In Plantations Is Disturbing The Residents Of Pagur Madina, North Sumatra

A joint team consisting of TNBG and KPH while monitoring the tiger-human conflict in Pagur Village, East Panyabungan District, Madina. (ANTARA/HO)

MADINA - Residents in Pagur Village, East Panyabungan District, Mandailing Natal (Madina) Regency, North Sumatra were made uneasy by the appearance of tigers in community plantation areas in that region.

Secretary of Pagur Village, Muhammad Taqwa in Panyabungan, said that in the last two weeks it was recorded that the tiger had appeared three times in the community's plantation area.

"In the past two weeks, it has been recorded that residents have seen it three times. The first was on June 27 morning, then on Wednesday, July 6 afternoon and finally, Wednesday July 13", he said as quoted by ANTARA, Thursday, July 14th.

Taqwa said that the appearance of the tiger was first seen by a resident named Lahuddin in the Banjar Paran Bira area, or about 3 KM from the residents' village. At that time, the tiger was seen about to pass.

Then, in the Banjar Namumbang area or about 4 KM from the residential area and the third time in the Simpang Pagur area.

He conveyed that the presence of these endangered animals had made residents restless and frightened, especially since the majority of the people's livelihood in the village were garden farmers.

"With the frequent appearance of these tigers, some residents are now afraid to try to go to the garden. Even so, some residents are still determined to go to the garden", he said.

Meanwhile, the Acting Head of Forest Protection and Community Empowerment, Forest Management Unit VIII of the Forestry Service of North Sumatra Province, Zulham Afandi, said that his party had made various efforts to anticipate the case of the tiger-human conflict.

Among them, is to carry out socialization, install camera traps and make booms to repel these animals.

"First of all, we from a joint team consisting of Batang Gadis National Park (TNBG) and Forest Management Unit (KPH) and the community have set up booms to dispel the animals. Then, we installed camera traps in several places that we consider to be tiger routes", said Zulham.

If the endangered species are still approaching the residents' villages, Zulham said, traps will be installed.

"If we have taken these steps and they are still approaching, then in the next process we will set traps for evacuation, so that things that are not wanted by the local community will not happen", he said.

From the results of observations carried out by the team in the field, there are three tigers that are estimated to be roaming the forest area, namely a male, female and one cub.

Given that the Aek Gorsing area is a habitat for these rare animals, he appealed to residents for the time being to reduce activities in the forest. And if it is very urgent asked not to be alone.

According to him, the conflict between tigers and humans was caused by the reduced area of forest land in the Aek Gorsing area of Pagur Village.

This is due to the fact that many forests have been converted to plantations. In addition, it is also caused by a reduction in the food chain due to being hunted by humans.