Written and photographed by Fieni Aprilia
“Junaidi, 42, poses with his PVC cannon in front of his farm in Alue Buloh. He crafted the device using a pipe and lights it with methylated spirit to alert the village whenever a wild elephant comes near. Image by Fieni Aprilia for Mongabay.”
Nestled between a vast palm oil plantation and the Sumatran rainforest is Alue Buloh, a hamlet in Cot Girek village, North Aceh district. To reach it, one must hike several kilometres down a mud and gravel road lined by land clearings and abandoned huts. The residents of Alue Buloh seem to never run out of stories about their interactions and encounters with elephants.
The hamlet is frequented by three herds, consisting of seven, 10 and 15 elephants, respectively. “We can only accept our fate when the elephants ravage our crops,” said Junaidi, a 42-year-old farmer who lives in Alue Buloh. “The elephants will never forget their original route. So, if we build a house or a farm within the elephants’ corridor, the elephants will take over.”
Instead of killing or hurting the elephants for invading their farms, the farmers provide them with space to feed and chase them away gently using loud noises — and in some cases, by talking to them. Even as increasing habitat loss for the Sumatran elephant and poverty for the villagers complicate efforts to address the human-elephant conflicts, local farmers are still exhaustively conducting voluntary patrols to protect the elephants and save their livelihoods.
These are the people living among the Sumatran elephants and working to conserve them along with the livelihoods of Cot Girek.
Read the article for Mongabay in this link: Mongabay, funded by Pulitzer Center.
A captive elephant mother and her cub in Tangkahan, North Sumatra. In the early 2000s, scientists estimated the population of wild Sumatran elephants at 2,400-2,800 individuals. Due to the rapidly changing environment, conservationists say the numbers are due for an update. Image by Fieni Aprilia for Mongabay.
Young captive Sumatran elephants in Tangkahan, North Sumatra. The decline of the elephants’ habitat due to land clearing for oil palm plantations and other developments has driven a decline of more than 50% in the Sumatran elephant population, according to the latest estimates. Image by Fieni Aprilia for Mongabay.
Leuser ecosystem as seen from Cot Girek. Its base is covered with an expanse of oil palm trees and hamlets occupied by farmers who must deal with wild elephants trying to reclaim their habitat. Image by Fieni Aprilia for Mongabay.
Recently cleared land in Cot Girek. According to WWF, the island of Sumatra has lost more than two-thirds of its lowland rainforest, the natural habitat of the Sumatran elephant. Image by Fieni Aprilia for Mongabay.
Husna sits in an an abandoned hut while trying to contact a farmer in Alue Buloh. Phone service is extremely scarce since the hamlet is secluded deep in between an oil palm estate and the jungle. Image by Fieni Aprilia for Mongabay.
Yasmin trails her son Junaidi on their farm. The two have spent decades in Cot Girek, witnessing the population decline of wild elephants as well as the clearing of the lowland rainforests. Image by Fieni Aprilia for Mongabay.
Yasmin displays dried flowers from the rosella plant, which SAHARA trained the women farmers to grow, package and sell. Planting crops such as rosella, candlenut and butterfly pea flowers is beneficial for the farmers since Sumatran elephants don’t eat these plants. Image by Fieni Aprilia for Mongabay.
Ummu Salamah at her food stall. Salamah is the only female community member of the government’s Conservation Response Unit in Cot Girek. Image by Fieni Aprilia for Mongabay.
A farmer standing in front of his brother’s house that was the recent target of a rampage by an adult elephant and its calf. The animals ate the palm shoots, killing off the trees. Image by Fieni Aprilia for Mongabay.
Iwan, in red, and the rest of the Conservation Response Unit team in Cot Girek pose while also trying to control Marni the elephant. Marni is one of the captive elephants kept by the CRU to assist them in handling wild elephants. Image by Fieni Aprilia for Mongabay.
Members of the Conservation Response Unit team in Cot Girek on their way to Marni’s location. They routinely walk their captive elephants around the forested areas of Cot Girek. Image by Fieni Aprilia for Mongabay.