(ID) Mass killing of Sumatran Elephants!

[Guest guest]

The Sumatran Elephant going the Panthera tigris sumatrae way! Yet again, the

man-animal conflict reigns supreme, costing the poor animals their lives! As it

is there's very little fauna left in Indonesia……I wonder where it would all end.

Your guess is as good as mine….forests making way for plantations and concrete

jungles…and poor animals becoming scarce and then more scarce……..Loss of

habitat…Loss of fauna!

`No arrests'!!!! Who will you arrest Mr.Suhartono? And will the arrests bring

back those dead 15 Elephants. 15 is a number!!!!…. The mass killing

occurred!!!…of Elephants and not cats or some such small animal that would go

unnoticed or undetected!!!!! What baffles me is that how the hell did this

slaughter happen without any of the Wildlife authorities knowing about it? It's

indeed SHOCKING!

 

Warm Regards

Radhika Singh

 

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Health--Science/Earth/Flora--Fauna/15-rare-Su\

matran-elephants-killed-Conservationist-/articleshow/4700625.cms

 

15 rare Sumatran elephants killed: Conservationist

25 Jun 2009, 1142 hrs IST, AP

 

 

JAKARTA, Indonesia: At least 15 endangered Sumatran elephants have been shot or

poisoned to death with cyanide-laced fruit this year in

 

Indonesia, marking a sharp rise over the previous year, a government

conservationist said Wednesday.

 

The giant mammals were mostly killed by poachers for their ivory, said Suhartono, the director of biodiversity conservation at the Forest Ministry. The

number killed in the past six months is equal to the total for the whole of

2008, he said.

 

" It is shocking,'' said Syamsidar, a campaigner with the World WildlifeFund in

the western island of Sumatra.

 

Several of the dead elephants were found in Sumatra's Riau province in or near

oil palm plantations, and forensic tests showed they had eaten cyanide-laced

pineapples. A number of others were shot in the head.

 

The killing is the result of a " conflict between humans and elephants,'' said

Syamsidar, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name. ``The forest is in

critical condition due to the illegal logging, slash-and-burn farming practices

and plantations.''

 

Indonesia's endangered elephants, tigers, rhinos and orangutans are increasingly

threatened by their shrinking habitat in the jungle, which is commonly cleared

for commercial farming or felled for lumber. Only 3,000 Sumatran elephants are

believed to remain in the wild.

 

They sometimes venture into inhabited areas searching for food and destroy crops

or attack humans, making them unpopular with locals.

 

Police say they are investigating all the elephant deaths. However, there have

been no ar