REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BANDA ACEH -- A herd of wild Sumatran elephants went on a rampage in Negeri Antara Village, Pintu Rimbee Sub-district, Bener Meriah District, Aceh Province, on early Monday and attacked a trained elephant named Ida. As a result, Ida sustained serious injuries.

She is being treated by a veterinarian, stated Irwansyah Putra, 43, Antara's photojournalist, who joined the Aceh Natural Resources Conservation Agency's (BKSDA's) officers' visit to the village on Tuesday. The agency's officers were dispatched to Negeri Antara Village to help drive out the big animals from the residential and farming areas.

Those wild elephants have repeatedly trespassed into the village area over the past six days, he remarked. Due to the attack, the 40-year-old elephant's legs got wounded.

"Dr Arman (a veterinarian) is treating her," Putra remarked, adding that the BKSDA officers had attempted to drive off the elephants towards the Peusangan riverbank and woods.

Meanwhile, Head of the Peusangan Riverbank Conversation Response Unit Syahrul Rizal noted that a total of 32 wild Sumatran elephants had trespassed into the Negeri Antara Village's areas over the past week and ravaged local farmers' agricultural land.

Currently, the elephants have moved to three areas near the village, he remarked, adding that the rampage of wild elephants simultaneously occurs in the areas of North Aceh, Gayo Lues, West Aceh, and Nagan Raya districts.

On Sunday, Ismail, a resident of Negeri Antara Village, informed Antara that wild elephants had ravaged a dozen hectares of the local farmers' agricultural land, causing them to suffer severe material losses, caused by damage to crops and fruits. The hungry Sumatran elephants (elephas maximus sumatranus) ravaged the farms that local farmers used for their durian and banana orchards as well as for planting pinang or areca nut palm trees and other crops, Ismail stated.

"The government is expected to resolve this human-elephant conflict," he noted.

Due to the ongoing presence of these wild elephants around the village's area, several farmers fear going to the farms. The wild elephants not only ravage the farmers' agricultural land but they also damage their huts, Ismail added.

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