Wild Elephants Reported To Damage Residents' Crops In South OKU

Photo Archive. A Sumatran elephant crosses the production road of the Industrial Planting Forest in the Padang Sugihan area, Ogan Komering Ilir Regency, South Sumatra. (ANTARA/HO-APP Sinar Mas)

OGAN KOMERING ULU - Wild elephants were reported to have damaged local residents' crops in Sumberingin Village, Buay Pemaca District, South Ogan Komering Ulu (OKU) Regency, South Sumatra.

According to the sub-district head of Buay Pemaca, Sainal Sagiman, wild elephants were reported to have eaten and damaged rice plants in the rice fields in Sumberingin Village.

"I don't know the exact number, but according to residents there is more than one," he said, as quoted by ANTARA, Thursday, August 4.

He appealed to residents to be vigilant because almost every year there are reports of wild elephants destroying residents' crops in the Sumberingin Village area and its surroundings.

The founder of the environmental agency Jejak Bumi Indonesia, OKU Regency, Hendra Setyawan, said that the shift in function and encroachment on the Sumatran elephant habitat area in the OKU Selatan Regency made elephants often enter settlements to look for food.

Jejak Bumi Indonesia encourages the protection of elephant habitat to preserve elephants, of which there are around 100 in the Gunung Raya Wildlife Reserve and Mekakau-Saka Protection Forest in South OKU.

"Is it (through the establishment of) protected forests or other land (uses) for conservation centers for protected animals," said Hendra.