A five-month pregnant woman and her unborn baby were crushed to death by a herd of elephants in Indonesia.
Karsini, a 33-year-old mother of three, was collecting rubber from trees with her husband Rasum on Sunday when a herd of about 15 giant trees entered their plantation in South Sumatra.
The wife banged empty drums like cymbals in a desperate attempt to scare away the animals, each of which weighed up to 4,000kg.
But the wild animals, frightened and enraged by the blows, attacked the couple and brutally trampled Karsini and her unborn baby to death.
After the herd moved away, villagers in Musi Rawas regency collected Karsini’s carcass from the forest.
Karsini (left) was tapping rubber from trees with her husband Rasum (right) when she was attacked.
She had tried to deter the elephants by banging on cans, but it seemed to infuriate them.
File photo. A Sumatran elephant in the forests of Indonesia
Muara Lakitan police chief AKP M Abdul Karim said: ‘The victim is known to have been five months pregnant.
‘She suffered severe injuries to her stomach and waist, and her uterus had shifted to the left.
“Her husband managed to save himself.”
He added that wild elephants are known to frequent the region in herds of up to 100 individuals.
Officers from the Bureau of Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) were on site to investigate, he said.
The police chief urged residents to stay away from the wandering elephants rather than trying to scare them away.
He said, “Don’t bother them, don’t try to scare them away.”
“They are just looking for food. If you see an elephant, move away immediately.”
The Sumatran elephant is a critically endangered subspecies of the Asian elephant, native to the Indonesian island of Sumatra, south of Malaysia.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, Sumatran elephants are on the brink of extinction, with only 2,400 to 2,800 left in the world.
Habitat loss due to deforestation and human activities, along with poaching, are the main threats to their survival.
It was previously classified as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List.
The archipelago nation faces an ongoing battle against wildlife crime and has seen several reported cases of elephant poisoning in recent years, including one in 2019 when a Sumatran elephant was found decapitated with its tusks removed.
The elephant population is also threatened by rampant poaching for their tusks, which are prized in the illegal wildlife trade.
Rampant deforestation has reduced the natural habitat of elephants, a critically endangered species, and brought them into increasing conflict with humans.
Villagers in Musi Rawas regency collected Karsini’s body from the forest.
An area is cordoned off after the tragic death of Karsini, a mother of three, on Sunday
The elephant’s conservation status has been changed to “critically endangered” as its population has reportedly declined by at least 80 percent over the past 75 years.
There are an estimated 1,500 Sumatran elephants left in the wild.
Elephants are rarely aggressive, but they may act if they feel threatened or to protect their young.
In India alone, around 400 people die each year from clashes with elephants, according to International Fund for Animal Welfare.
Human development has also pushed wild elephants to the brink of extinction; today there are between 30,000 and 50,000 elephants left in the world.
Most live in India, where thousands of captive elephants are forced to work their entire lives in terrible conditions, overheated, mistreated and, in some cases, beaten for their bad behavior.
