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(3/3/06 1:38 pm)
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Six Elephants killed by poison in Sumatra
Six elephants killed by poison in Sumarta
March 02 2006 at 11:01AM
Jakarta - Six wild Sumatran elephants found dead with blackened mouths on the jungle floor of Mahato, Riau province, on Indonesia's Sumatra island, were believed to have been poisoned, a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) official said on Thursday.
"We have a strong belief that they were all poisoned," Desmarita Murni, WWF communications officer for species programmes, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, adding that the WWF planned to perform an autopsy later on Thursday to find out exact details on how and who might poisoned the wild beasts.
Continuous conflicts between the wild beasts and villagers encroaching into the jungle have often been cited as the cause of the elephants' occasional rampages that damage houses and kill villagers in some regencies in Riau province.
Environmentalists and conservation officials have said that due to destruction of their habitat for development and illegal activities, elephants have posed a constant threat to humans.
'We have a strong belief that they were all poisoned'
"Those wild beasts are considered as pests by local villagers and farm owners," Desmarita said.
"But at the same time we have to see this as the consequences of constant forest conversion into farms and villages by humans," she said.
Desmarita said the last incident of wild elephants being poisoned in Riau province was in November 2004, when another six wild elephants were killed.
Habitat destruction, combined with illegal poaching, have slashed the population of wild elephants on Sumatra, the only island in Indonesia where they can still be found in the wild.
An estimated 4 000 of the protected species still live there
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