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herd of 30 rampaging elephants in Serai Serumpun district, Tebo regency in Jambi, has destroyed dozens of hectares of oil palm crops since April 27, despite efforts by local residents to drive them away.

The elephants are believed to have ventured outside Bukit Tiga Puluh National Park (TNBT) in search of food. The elephants spread out quickly and devoured the young shoots of oil palm trees by uprooting the trees with their trunks, thus damaging the crops.

Farmers have been left fuming and at the same time terrified by the elephant attacks. Because the farms are located far from human settlements, the rogue elephants did not damage residents' homes. No casualties have been reported from any of the attacks so far.

"The elephants have ravaged plasma oil palm farms and nucleus plantations," said Sekutur Jaya villager Udin. Serai Serumpun district chief Kamal confirmed on April 29 that elephant attacks had become a regular occurrence in several villages in the district.

"The elephants have been attacking farms in Sekutur Jaya for the past few days. They have not managed to ruin most plasma oil palm farms and nucleus estates, because those are protected by ditches," he said.

Residents are currently trying to stop the stampedes by chasing off the elephants, but according to Kamal, the animals will return to forage on the remaining young oil palm shoots because they are hungry.

"Local authorities have reported the occurrence to the Tebo regency administration and forwarded it to the Jambi office of the Natural Resources Conservation Center *BKSDA* to tackle the problem," he added.

However, no one from the BKSDA has visited the village yet.

Elephant attacks are common in Serai Serumpun district. For residents, elephants are considered pests that destroy their crops. An elephant was found dead recently, believed to have been killed by residents after destroying their crops.