Human/orangutan catastrophe hits Sumatra

[Guest guest]

This news was provided to IPPL by the Sumatran Orangutan Society. The

Society's full report, with photos, is available from IPPL.

 

EMERGENCY BULLETIN

 

This newsletter is an immediate attempt to inform readers of the current

situation in Bukit Lawang. More information may be obtained via the

internet and other news sources.

 

Disaster at Bukit Lawang

 

Present date: November 5th;

 

Dear all, welcome back to SOCP news. We had planned a newsletter in

November in order to bring you all up to date with what we have been doing

on the project in the last 5 months. However, news from the quarantine and

release sites must take a back seat this time due to the recent catastrophe

in Bukit Lawang.

 

Bukit Lawang is the site of the original Sumatran orangutans rehabilitation

centre, established in the early 1970s by PanEco's President, Regina Frey,

and her colleague, Monica Borner. Since those early days the small village

of Bukit Lawang has developed into a thriving tourism resort catering to

both Indonesian and foreign visitors wishing to see the orangutans in the

area and explore the Gunung Leuser National Park.

 

As many of you will have heard there was a tragic loss of life there last

weekend, probably eventually going well over 100 people, as a result of a

massive flash flood that has pretty much destroyed the whole town. We

therefore devote this newsletter to providing some basic information about

the disaster. Suffice to say though that everyone here is busy trying to

deal with the aftermath and our hearts go out to all those who have lost

family or friends (as many readers will also have done) at this time. We

also wish to praise all those villagers, tourists and others that managed

to do something to help save lives.

 

Chronology of events

 

From what we have been able to piece together it all started around 7.00

p.m. on Sunday 2nd November. We hear reports that the river began to rise

slowly about this time and seeped over the threshold of some of the lower

lying houses and cafés. Despite this most of the villagers considered it to

be nothing out of the ordinary and merely moved rice and other provisions

to higher storage. Later, however, at around 10.00 p.m. the river suddenly

began to rise dramatically and a huge deluge of water came down the Bohorok

river bearing hundreds of fallen trees.

 

Together, the water and timber pummeled the village for around 3 hours,

finally beginning to subside around 1.00 am on the 3rd. Exactly what took

place during those three hours is perhaps best left to the imagination and

to those who experienced it for themselves but on seeing the results a day

later it is clear that it was a terrible and harrowing experience.

 

The result

 

Many people lost their lives. At the present time the official figures are

ca 103 confirmed dead, 15 currently in hospital with injuries and up to an

additional 86 who are still missing. So far, non-Indonesians account for 5

of the dead, all tourists from what we can gather (NB: On the 6th these

figures are all still rising).

 

SOCP first heard about this at 9.00 am on the Monday morning. YELs Bukit

Lawang Cottage was relatively unaffected and miraculously the phone line

was still functioning. In the last few days staff at the cottage have been

functioning as a kind of operations centre and have played an important

role in communicating with outside authorities and embassies.

 

Suherry and Pak Sofyan Tan (Chairman of YEL) quickly went up there to see

the situation for themselves and to deliver some basic, emergency food

supplies. Most of our close colleagues at the cottage were unharmed though

we are sad to report that Pak Sagiono, one of the security guards, is still

unaccounted for and must be presumed dead. Pak Misyadi, another guard who

was on duty at the time, has lost his wife and 3 children.

 

Remarkably, the Bukit Lawang Cottage is one of the few facilities still

left standing and operational, having lost only part of one building and

the bridge across the river. We hear that the hotel downstream (and also on

the far side of the river), that was previously owned by a Frenchman, has

also survived. Both, it seems, escaped the torrent as they are on higher

ground and also in the lee of the main bend in the river. Unfortunately

this cannot be said of the rest of the town, which was located directly in

the path of the greatest upsurge of water as it hit the sharp 90 degree

bend and thrust over its banks at full force carrying thousands of fallen

trees with it.

 

The majority of those that did not survive were either drowned or battered

to death by the timber and debris. It is difficult to imagine a more

terrifying and harrowing experience. Many also watched their friends and

families succumb.

 

As you can see from the pictures, the village has been around 90%

destroyed. Once the debris and buildings that cannot be repaired are

demolished there will be very little still standing in the original site of

the town. Of those that are still okay, the Gunung Leuser National Park

office and visitor centre is one and parts of the Rindu Alam Hotel are another.

 

Further upstream, almost all of the buildings and accommodations along the

narrow path to the orangutans station have gone. A few do still remain but

at the time of writing we cannot be more specific.

 

The orangutan centre

 

We can report that the orangutan centre itself also appears to have

survived relatively unscathed. The Pongo Resort restaurant and one of the

chalets near to the river have both been damaged beyond repair but the

orangutan cages and their occupants seem to be okay. Suherry and vet, Drh

Wardy, have both this morning set off to Bukit Lawang to try to get some

supplies to the site, try to confirm what we have heard and to see what now

needs to be done there. When he was in Bukit Lawang on Monday, Suherry was

not able to get there but it should be possible today.

 

We will do whatever is needed to ensure the well being of the orangutans

and staff at the station and will of course try to keep you informed if we

can (though suggest you also keep an eye on the Internet and other news

sources for updated information).

 

November 6th: Suherry and Wardy are back in Medan. Yesterday they made it

as far as the opposite bank from the orangutan centre. We are pleased to

report that all the staff of the centre, and of the Pongo resort are okay.

All the orangutans in the cages at the time survived too. The staff

evacuated from the centre the morning after the flood and before leaving,

opened the cages so the orangutans can find food for themselves. From the

reports of the rangers it seems the cages were engulfed briefly by the

water. There is also a lot of timber strewn around nearby.

 

The orangutans have been extremely lucky by the sound of things. So far

only one orangutan is known to have died. The corpse was found down river

in the pool area near to Bukit Lawang Cottage. The individual is

unrecognizable but was almost certainly an ex-captive asleep in a nest near

the river when the flood occurred. (NB: We just heard that a second

orangutan corpse was also found but do not have any more details).

 

As stated, the orangutans released from the cages are now free. Suherry and

Wardy saw Muni and Sasha from the river bank. The others, Kimoi, Joni, and

Abu were presumably foraging in the forest at the time. There is food

available for them. Almost certainly they have already raided any supplies

left at the ranger post or the Pongo Resort. It is also the fruiting season

now so the orangutans have a very good chance to make a life for themselves

in the forest.

 

Despite this Suherry and Wardy plan to return there later today or tomorrow

with equipment and assistance to cross the river and provide additional

food for the orangutans. They will try to contact the rangers and set up a

regular programme of providing food for any orangutans that remain near the

station.

 

It just so happens that Wardy and our consultant vet, Dr Hester van

Bolhuis, gave each of the caged orangutans a thorough medical check only 4

weeks ago and all were negative for TB and hepatitis. They have also just

been treated for parasites. Given this, we are confident that most will do

okay but we will try to monitor them as much as we can in case any of them

do not manage to cope.

 

As for the station infrastructure, the cages are all in tact and one

building appears undamaged. All the other structures have sustained some

damage but repairing some may well be possible.

 

We will let you know more about the situation and progress at the site in

the next issue of SOCP News or another bulletin.

 

The causes

 

The local media has rapidly jumped on the illegal logging band-wagon as the

main cause of the sudden flash flood. Reports are mixed, however, as to the

real extent of logging in the Bohorok river catchment itself.

 

For sure, for a huge flash flood like this it would seem that something had

been holding the water back, and that it was suddenly breached, allowing

all the water to descend at once. Potential dams are logs (either fallen or

cut) or soil and earth (and trees) that could temporarily block the river

after a landslide. It is further possible that both could occur at the same

time and thus exacerbate the scale of the problem.

 

Field workers who have recently been into parts of the park above Bukit

Lawang say that further in, at least, most of the forest is in tact,

although there is a large tract of young forest that may be the result of

earlier logging or a natural landslide.

 

There are some additional reports that villagers themselves had actually

created a dam nearer to Bukit Lawang to provide a pool for easier fishing!

 

Given the conflicting information available we must acknowledge that the

root cause could be man-made but also that it could be a wholly natural

event. We are helping where we can, however, and with others, to try and

identify the ultimate cause.

 

For information, Gunung Leuser National Park covers around 830,000 ha and

reports suggest that around 43,000 ha of this total has already been lost

to illegal logging. This is despite the fact that the vast majority of the

Park is mountainous, steep and relatively inaccessible. The Ladia Galaska

roads project will of course change this, opening up huge areas to illegal

logging if it goes ahead. The National Park itself also constitutes a major

part of the larger Leuser Ecosystem (ca 2,500,000 ha).

 

If the Bukit Lawang catastrophe does eventually prove to have been caused

by illegal logging activities within the Park it would serve as a timely

reminder to those responsible or enforcing conservation and environmental

laws as well as those in power and still pushing for increased forest

conversion (e.g. Ladia Galaska).

 

November 6th: reports are just coming in that the cause of the catastrophe

looks to be entirely natural and not related to any logging activity. It

appears there is a huge area of ca 7,000 ha, over 10 km into the Park to

the east (towards the Aceh border), that is heavily scarred by hundreds of

major landslides as if the steep mountain slopes have been gouged out by

immense claws. Thus it would seem this is the result of an entirely natural

phenomenon, brought about by heavy rains and steep slopes. It also seems

that the slopes are still covered by strips of forest between the

gougeswhich presumably are now not as stable as they used to be. Reports

also indicate that there is still a huge amount of fallen timber up river

from Bukit Lawang too. We must therefore assume that a recurrence of the

disaster is a distinct possibility, especially if there are more heavy

rains. Lets hope this doesn'thappen!

 

How to help

 

Due to a mounting number of enquiries about how people can help, both YEL

in Indonesia and PanEco in Switzerland have taken action. Funds to be

donated to YEL can be transferred to:-

 

Account name:

Yayasan Ekosistem Lestari (YEL) QQ Bencana Alam.

Account number: 0270118531003

Bank Address:

Bank Niaga

Cabang Medan-Gajah Mada

Jl. Gajah Mada No. 11

Medan

Sumatera Utara, Indonesia

SWIFT Code: PNIAIDJA

 

Donations to YEL will be geared primarily towards the relief effort. They

will be quickly used to provide basic essentials such as food, shelter and

clothing etc. to ease the suffering of survivors of the tragedy. Given that

this account is in Medan, only 2.5 hours away from Bukit Lawang, donations

can be rapidly converted into provisions and quickly delivered to those in

most need. YEL already has numerous staff in Bukit Lawang helping with the

relief work.

 

Funds to be donated to PanEco in Switzerland can be sent to the following

account:-

 

PanEco account:

Credit Suisse; No 490097-11;

Ban clearing number 4791;

SWIFT code: CRESCHZZ84R.

Bank Address:

Credit Suisse

Bahnhofplatz/Postfach

CH-8400 Winterthur

Switzerland

 

All donations to PanEco clearly noted as Flash Flood will automatically be

directed to a special sub-account. Donations to PanEco will be geared more

towards providing assistance to the community in the longer term, to

redevelop in a sustainable way, to protect their environment and thereby

avoid future catastrophes, and to educate those that have no other means of

affording an education. PanEco will be launching an international campaign

from its website www.paneco.org in the coming days. Please look them up for

further details.

 

Note: As stated, this bulletin is concerned only with Bukit Lawang, as a

means to get word and some basic information out to others. We will try to

put together another shortly to let you know how the SOCP has been getting on.

 

The Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme is a collaborative project

involving the PanEco Foundation, Frankfurt Zoological Society, Yayasan

Ekosistem Lestari and the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry's Directorate

General of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation.

 

http://www.sumatranorangutan.org/