9 Days Waiting, Sun Bear Who Damaged Sugar Cane Plants And Eat Jackfruit Belonging To Agam Residents Finally Arrested

Honey bears entering the trap cage belonging to KSDA Maninjau Resort (Photo: DOK ANTARA)

AGAM - A sun bear (Helarctos malayanus) entered a trap enclosure belonging to the Natural Resources Conservation Resort (KSDA) Maninjau, Agam Regency, West Sumatra this morning.

The trap cage has been installed by KSDA for nine days on a sugarcane land belonging to the residents of Surau Kubangan Hamlet, Jorong Session Tangah, Nagari Matua Mudiak, Matur District.

The guardian of the Jorong Tangah Session, Agusmar said, the bear was first seen entering the trap cage by local resident Aditiawarman when he was looking for grass at the trap cage location.

"Aditiawarman reported to me that a bear entered a trap cage and he reported that the door was not closed," he said in Lubukbasung, Antara, Wednesday, March 16.

Receiving the report, he immediately went to the location to check whether the door was tightly closed and immediately informed the Maninjau KSDA Resort.

At the location, residents are already busy seeing bears that are disturbing residents due to damage to sugarcane plants, jackfruit belonging to residents and even appearing in residential areas. "I find it difficult to forbid residents not to come near," he said.

Meanwhile, the Head of the Maninjau KSDA Resort, Ade Putra, added that the Maninjau KSDA Resort officers immediately went to the location to evacuate the animals after receiving information from the Jorong Guardian of the Tangah Session.

"We evacuated by using a transport cage," he said.

He added that his party will conduct observations related to physical conditions whether there are injuries, defects and others.

If declared healthy, he added, the animals protected by Law Number 5 of 1990 concerning Conservation of Natural Resources and Ecosystems are immediately released or released into the wild in safe conservation areas.

"We do wild release after the results of our observations," he said.

He admitted that the handling of human conflicts with wild animals such as sun bears began in January 2022.

The Maninjau KSDA Resort has handled the human conflict with the sun bear by deploying a team.

Handling conflicts in the form of interviews with eyewitnesses who saw sun bears, field identification, monitoring the presence of animals from feces, scratch marks and food scraps.

Even the Maninjau KSDA Resort also installed two camera traps, a trap cage and carried out patrols. "We have made efforts, but have not succeeded in evacuating the sun bears," he said.