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Farmer killed in suspected Sumatran tiger attack
The local conservation agency is sending a team to investigate the death of a rubber farmer, whose body was found with wounds that appear to have been made by a Sumatran tiger.
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A female Sumatran tiger roars inside a cage before it was released into the wild in the Leuser Ecosystem in southern Aceh, as seen in this file photo dated June 19, 2020. (AFP/Chaideer Mahyuddin)
T
he body of a 58-year-old farmer was found on Wednesday in Aek Bilah district, South Tapanuli, North Sumatra, bearing wounds thought to be sustained during an attack by a Sumatran tiger.
District head Haddar P.N. Pasaribu said the body of Saipul Ritong was found at around 8:30 a.m. in a rubber plantation near Lobutayas village.
“Both of his legs were mauled by a tiger,” he told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
According to information from local villagers, Saipul had left alone for the plantation on Wednesday morning, Haddar said.
He added that he had reported the incident to the local Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA), military command and the Dolok Hole Police, as well as the South Tapanuli administration.
Gunawan Alza, the head of tge Padang Sidempuan BKSDA, confirmed that the agency had received the report. “We will send a team on Thursday to investigate,” Gunawan said.
Earlier in April, also in South Tapanuli, a BKSDA veterinarian was bitten and clawed by a Sumatran tiger he was trying to free from a wild boar trap.
The veterinarian, Anhar Lubis, was treated at Metta Medika Hospital in Padang Sidempuan city in a village in Angkola Sangkunur district after he sustained scratches and lacerations on his left arm and leg.
The Sumatran tiger is a subspecies of tiger that is native to the island of Sumatra. The species has been classified as critically endangered since 2008 by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Poaching, including the use of traps, and the loss of the tigers’ natural habitat are among the primary cause of the decline in the Sumatran tiger population.
In 2016, the North Sumatra BKSDA established the Barumun Tiger Sanctuary in collaboration with the Environment and Forestry Ministry and local nonprofit Parsamuhan Bodhicitta Mandala Medan (YPBMM).
The sanctuary is currently home to eight Sumatran tigers that are being treated and rehabilitated in preparation for their eventual release into the wild. In February, the sanctuary welcomed three Sumatran tiger cubs born to two tigers that had been rescued from traps. (dre)
