Pekanbaru, Riau, Feb 25 (Antarariau.com) - Professional hunters are believed to be allegedly involved in the killing of seven wild Sumatran elephants in the Tesso Nilo National Park that borders PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (RAPP) in Pelalawan, Riau province.
"It seems that the poachers are professional because the tusks were plugged and not sawn or cut by axe as usual," Head of the Tesso National Park service section Delfi Andra informed Antara here on Tuesday, from the location where the dead elephants were found.
He claimed that illegal poaching was clearly the motive behind the case as the tusks of the animals were already missing when their bodies were found.
He noted that the animals heads were also scattered, presumably taken away by the poachers to remove their tusks.
The poachers are also believed to have mutilated the elephants because several of their bones were piled up in the woods far from their skulls.
Delfi pointed out that the poachers had poisoned the animals before removing their tusks.
The locations where the bodies of the animals were found were not far away from the companys corridor to the settlement area.
The first pile of elephant bones was found in a location around 20 kilometers from the road, while 10 meters deeper, more bones were found.
"We also found a detergent soap plastic container around the elephants bones and dung, which may have been used to carry the poison," he claimed.
He believes that the animals had been poisoned around 700 meters from where they were found dead.
He remarked that the scene of crime was tampered due to rain. The animals had been killed relatively long time ago, and hence, it was difficult to conduct further investigation.
He reported that the location was not cordoned off by the police to prevent the people from entering the area and tampering with the evidence.
On Tuesday, he noted that all the relevant evidence will be taken to the Tesso Nilo National Park office.
Earlier, the spokesman of the provinces Natural Resources Conservation Service M. Zanir stated that his office will investigate the case in coordination with the police, the WWF, and RAPP.
Proffesional Hunters Allegedly Involved in Deaths of Seven Elephants
