As many as 23 wild elephants breached the boundaries of Karang Ampar village, Ketol district, Central Aceh, on Monday. According to locals, the attack was the second of its kind, after a dozen wild elephants previously invaded Karang Ampar and a neighboring village.
The angry animals caused damaged to at least two hectares of chili fields and rice paddies. Local residents tried to remove the animals but to no avail.
In fact, one of the villagers, Hamdan, almost become a casualty of the attack after he and his family decided to sleep in a hut located in the middle of the field to avoid the animals.
“We were really tired and were not aware that the elephants had already surrounded the hut. But they didn’t attack us, they just ate the grass,” he said as quoted by Tribunnews.com.
Animal invasions into villages have reportedly become quite common in rural Indonesia as the government has failed to control land expansion, both for housing and crops, which takes over the animals’ natural habitats.
Article at the following link: