Two Elephants Found Dead In Riau

Pekanbaru, Riau, March 28 (ANTARA) - Two Sumatran elephants (Elephas Maximus Sumatranus) were found dead in the Tesso Nilo National Park, Riau province. "The two elephants are predicted to have died about a week ago and found in the national park," head of the Tesso Nilo national park Suprahman said here, Sunday. He said that the wild elephants were found dead in Air Hitam village, Pelalawan regency, Riau. The national parks staff initially found the estimated six to seven years old dead male elephant with a missing right tusk on Saturday (27/3) at 9.00 pm local time. After conducting patrol, another dead elephant was also found about 100 meters away from the first one will its tasks still intact. Suprahman said that the Tesso Nilo National Park with the Central Natural Resources Conservation (BBKSDA) Riau, WWF (world Wildlife Fund) and the Ukui Police is now doing further investigations on the elephants cause of death. Suprahman said that the team is still unable to identify the perpetrators and the elephants cause of death. The WWF Riau Public relation officer, Syamsidar, said that the dead elephans were found in cleared forest area which had being converted into a palm estate. Within the last month three Sumatran elephants were found dead after being killed in Riau. Last week, an elephant was also found dead with missing tusks in Petani village, Mandau sub-district, Bengkalis District. "From the tusk cut, most likely the perpetrator was not a hunter," he said. The law enforcement agencies however are still unable to arrest any of the perpetrators.