BKSDA Investigate Elephant Death In West Aceh

A five-year-old female Sumatran elephant calf (elephas maximus sumatranus) was found dead by local residents on the banks of the Krueng Lancong River, Sungai Mas District, West Aceh, Tuesday (19/12/2023). ANTARA/HO/Resident.

Head of the Aceh Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) Gunawan Alza said he had dispatched a team to investigate the cause of the death of an elephant in the Mas River, West Aceh Regency.

"We have prepared a team with a veterinarian to check and only yesterday afternoon we drove to the location," said Gunawan Alza, in Banda Aceh, as reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, December 20.

Previously, a five-year-old female Sumatran elephant calf (elephas maximus sumatranus) was found dead by residents on the banks of the Krueng Lancong River, Sungai Mas District, West Aceh, Tuesday (19/12).

The elephant calf was found lying on the edge of the river. It is suspected that his death had been due to the skin on the trunk, the legs of the front, until the body had been peeling off a lot.

Gunawan admitted that he did not know for sure the chronology of the death of the protected animal. He is still waiting for reports from the team to the location.

"For the chronology, we are waiting for a report from the team to the location," he said.

For information, the negative interaction between humans and Sumatran elephants in the BKSDA record has become increasingly massive, reaching 583 incidents in the last five years, while throughout January-October 2023 the number was recorded at 85 incidents.

Of that number, the most frequent negative interactions between humans and elephants in Pidie were 145 incidents, followed by Aceh Jaya 86 incidents, East Aceh 67 incidents and West Aceh 33 incidents.

To overcome the increasingly massive conflict between humans and elephants due to the struggle for living space, the Aceh BKSDA has made various efforts, including the installation of a GPS Collar necklace as an early warning system on 18 representatives of the wild elephant group.

Then, installed 27,700 meters of trenches and 61,380 meters of shock fences (power fencing) from 2015 to May 2023 in several areas of the corridor of protected wildlife, namely in East Aceh, South Aceh-Subulussalam, Aceh Jaya, Bener Meriah, Pidie, Central Aceh, Bireuen, and West Aceh.