Elephants trample Aceh farmer to death

A horde of Sumatran elephants trampled a local farmer in Koto village, South Aceh regency to death on Friday, Antara news agency reported.

Kluet Tengah district chief Muhammad Hasbi told the agency the giant mammals attacked Salehuddin, 30, as he was taking care of his plantation in Alue Keujereun village, located 50 kilometers east of South Aceh capital of Tapaktuan.

It was not immediately known why the elephants attacked Salehuddin.

Last week, wild elephants attacked a 63-year-old woman, Marsini, to death near her palm oil plantation in Pinggir district in the Riau regency of Bengkalis.

Conservation agency officials said conflicts between human and elephant there had claimed several lives in the past few years in the wake of rampant conversion of forests into plantations.