- In Indonesia’s Aceh province, farmers are installing electrified fences to protect their crops from elephants, whose forest habitats are continually shrinking.
- Farmers can face economic disaster if a herd tramples through a smallholding, while some elephants in need of food have nowhere else to go due to forest encroachment for plantations and farmland.
- In Indonesia and Sri Lanka, there have been increasing reports of elephant deaths in recent years attributed to electrified fences connected to high-voltage power sources.
CENTRAL ACEH, Indonesia — Mak Besan dropped a clutch of cayenne peppers picked from a neighbor’s land in Karang Ampar village into a white canvas bag, her head protected from the elements by a heavy, patterned shawl.
“My own farm is pretty far from the settlement,” Mak Besan told Mongabay Indonesia. “And I don’t go there anymore because I’m afraid of the elephants.”
Mak Besan’s plot of subsistence land here on Indonesia’s main western island of Sumatra includes a copse of fruit and nut trees, producing candlenuts, durian and other crops. Without those harvests to sustain her, she helps out on other villagers’ land to earn enough to raise her children.
Much of the community’s farmland is now considered out of bounds because of the increase in encounters with elephant herds here in the special autonomous province of Aceh.
The Peusangan River Basin spans three districts in Aceh, whose rainforests are home to one of Indonesia’s largest congregations of Sumatran elephants (Elephas maximus sumatranus).
The three districts also house a combined population of around 1 million people. Flashpoints with elephants have become more common as the animals’ habitat has shrunk, forcing elephants into populated areas.
“Their habitat in the Peusangan watershed has been fragmented, so these elephants are trapped in narrow corridors,” said Abdullah, head of the Elephant Conservation and Biodiversity Research Center at Syiah Kuala University in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital.
A 2018 study found that “expansion of agricultural land, plantations, settlements and forestry industries directly affect the reduction of elephant habitat, which may cause human-elephant conflict.”
According to Global Forest Watch, a satellite monitoring platform operated by the World Resources Institute, Central Aceh district lost more than 35,000 hectares (86,000 acres) of tree cover between 2000 and 2023, a reduction of 8.3%.
People in Mak Besan’s village say they worry about flattened farmland, or that in the dead of night an elephant could trample over their timber-framed homes.
“The elephants don’t just come down to the farms,” Mak Besan said. “They also enter residential areas.”
Current account
Anecdotal testimonies of more frequent elephant sightings have prompted some farmers to install electric fences, a controversial measure designed to reduce human-elephant conflict.
“To date there is no solution from the government,” said Muslim, who leads a conservation patrol team in Ketol subdistrict, which includes Karang Ampar village. “That means residents are coming up with their own ways to save themselves and their crops from elephant disturbances.”
Electrified fences connected to a low-output power source appear to have reduced elephant-human conflicts in some countries, such as in Kenya. However, troubling evidence is emerging that some fences have been connected to high-voltage sources, including mains power lines. In Sri Lanka, the Wildlife Conservation Department estimates around 300 elephants have been electrocuted since 2018. In January, the Sri Lankan agency ordered its fieldworkers to inspect the electric fences installed to limit human elephant conflicts. Reporting on the ground indicates that many fences were connected to high-voltage lines operated by Sri Lanka’s national grid.
Wire transfer
In June, Mongabay reported on the death of Umi, the mother of several calves from Sumatra’s Bukit Tigapuluh area farther south on the island.
Local sources said Umi had died after contacting an electric fence installed around community plantation land. Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Muslim, the Ketol subdistrict conservation patrol chief, told Mongabay Indonesia that local people were constructing electric fences incorrectly, increasing the risk of fatality for Sumatran elephants, which have been classified as critically endangered for 14 years.
“Residents don’t understand the rules for installing electric fences, so they are using high voltage,” Muslim said. “If it hits an elephant, it can be fatal.”
At the same time, farmers Mongabay Indonesia spoke with described punitive impacts on family finances caused by run-ins with local herds.
Saleh Kadri, the elected head of Karang Ampar village, said risk of elephant encounters made residents fearful to farm, creating knock-on effects for consumption and ability pay for public services.
“We’ve never been hostile toward elephants,” Saleh said. “We’re happy to live side by side with these giant mammals.
“We also understand that when elephants enter the farms, it means that they need food,” he said. “We don’t disturb their forest habitat for that reason.”
Muslim added that conflicts have become more frequent since forest areas were cleared for oil palm plantations in Bireuen district.
As a result, elephant paths have been disrupted and their habitats have been fragmented. Elephants are trapped in Bener Meriah district, Central Aceh district and parts of Bireuen.
“The human-Sumatran elephant conflict has been going on for the past 10 years,” said Datu Derakal, an Indigenous elder who governs several villages in Bener Meriah’s Pintu Rime Gayo subdistrict.
Elephants are losing their habitat and routes as these are converted into oil palm plantations.
“Herds of elephants enter farming and residential areas because they need food to survive, just like humans,” he said.
An official with the Bireuen district government said establishing adequate boundaries in the Peusangan River Basin should be carried out immediately.
“This is very important, considering that human-elephant conflicts are increasing in Bireuen, Bener Meriah and Central Aceh,” Dailami, an assistant to the district chief, said at a local forum in June to discuss issues relating to the Peusangan watershed.
Today in Karang Ampar, a thin electrified wire suspended at chest height fringes much of the village. Only a warning sign and rusting food cans dangling from the wire help ensure that children don’t walk into the fence.
Like many in Karang Ampar, Mak Besan said she worries she may not be able to help provide for her family if there’s no way to guarantee safe access to her farm.
“It’s not only me,” Mak Besan said. “Other residents don’t dare to go either.”
Banner image: The bone of an elephant that died from electric shock in Karang Ampar. Image by Junaidi Hanafiah/Mongabay Indonesia.
This story was reported by Mongabay’s Indonesia team and first published here on our Indonesian site on July 6, 2024.
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Citation:
Berliani, K., Alikodra, H. S., Masy’ud, B., & Kusrini, M. D. (2018). Evaluation of human-elephants (Elephas maximus sumatranus) conflict in Aceh province, Indonesia. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1116, 052014. doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1116/5/052014
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