Jakarta - A wild tiger attacked and mauled to death a farmer
in Indonesia's Riau province on the eastern of Sumatra, a local media
report said Sunday.
The incident occurred Saturday morning when the victim, identified
only as Rabai, 45, was walking to the rubber plantation in Pemantang
Raman village of Muara Jambi district, the Kompas.com online news
portal reported.
Didi Wurjanto, the head of Jambi provincial Natural Resources and
Conservation Agency, was quoted as saying residents found the body of
Rabai not far from his hut with deep wounds on his chest and waist.
'For a tiger to pounce a man like this is a rare case,' Didi said,
explaining that tigers generally avoid humans.
The incident occurred at dawn and the tiger probably thought the
man was livestock, because it left immediately and did not eat him,
Didi said.
He speculated the tiger entered the settlement area looking for
livestock, as food sources in the forest are increasingly difficult
to obtain. He added that conservation officials had installed carbide
bombs to drive the beast back into the forest.
Environmentalists say such attacks result from the destruction
of the tiger's natural habitat by logging, noting that the animals
would not disturb humans if their habitat were not destroyed.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, there are between 400 and
500 Sumatra tigers left in the wild. The Sumatran tiger is believed
to be the last remaining sub-species of tiger indigenous to
Indonesia. The Bali and Java tigers are believed to be extinct.
Environmentalists blame illegal hunting, which claims an estimated
50 Sumatran tigers per year, and rampant deforestation in Sumatra for
the big cats' drastic drop in population.
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