Wild elephants kill two in Indonesia's Sumatra island

Mar 13, 2007, 5:35 GMT

Jakarta - A herd of wild elephants have killed two people and destroyed several homes during the past week in the south of Indonesia's Sumatra island, officials said Tuesday.

Six pachyderms trampled to death one resident and destroyed several homes on Monday night in Suoh village in West Lampung regency, Edward Rahadian with the Natural Resource Conservation Agency (BKSDA) in Lampung province said.

But Monday night's fatality was the second caused by the wild elephants in West Lampung regency in the past week, Rahadian told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Wild elephants also killed a resident in Lampung's Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park five days either, he said.

Sumatran wild elephants periodically enter villages at night to forage for food but they generally leave before dawn.

Widespread destruction of elephant habitat through illegal logging and uncontrolled conversion of forests into oil palm and pulp plantations has created conflict between humans and elephants as they are forced to feed on the crops that replaced their natural foods, environmentalists claim.

About 4,000 wild elephants remain on Sumatra and it is the only island in Indonesia where they can still be found in the wild. They are listed as an endangered species and protected by law.