Bicara soal gajah saya teringat sebuah lagu country "The Elephant Fate" yang
kurang lebih liriknya sbb :
Tell me said the elephant.
Tell me brighter as you can.
Why all the world has full with creatures.
With the rifle and the knife.
Reff : People kill without regret.
Although they fly by Jumbo jet.
Let's the world has more remember.
And the children not forget.
Begitulah kira-kira dan mari kita selamatkan nasib sang gajah.****Efdees.
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: InWildNet <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 30 April 2000 6:11
Subject: Re: [lingkungan] The Jakarta Post dan TSI TIDAK PEDULI LINGKUNGAN
>The Sumatran elephant's range and number have declined since the
>turn of the 19th century, with the establishment of large scale monoculture
>plantations such as rubber, oil palm, sugarcane etc in the island. Large
>number of elephants were shot and killed in the process of forest
clearance.
>Prior to the arrival of the Dutch, the Sultans of Sumatra maintained large
>number of elephants in captivity, but with the arrival of the Dutch the
>influence of these Sultans waned and with the phasing out of the Sultans,
>the science and art of domesticating elephants also disappeared from
Sumatra.
>
> Today, the elephants in Sumatra have lost so much of their original
>habitat that they are forced to invade the communities that have replaced
>them. This is the crux of the human-elephant conflict in Sumatra. When
large
>number of people, mostly transmigrants from over crowded Java and Bali
began
>cultivating the land in Sumatra, they came to bear the brunt of elephant
>depredations on a massive scale. Monoculture plantations too began losing
>vast sums of money through elephant depredations. People, in the absence of
>relief from the Government, began taking the law into their own hands and
>began killing elephants in Sumatra.
>
> Faced with this situation, it was the PHPA (Directorate General of
>Forest Protection and Nature Conservation) and the TSI (Taman Safari
>Indonesia) who first seriously thought of capturing the chronic crop
raiding
>elephants with the view to training them and using them in forestry,
>agriculture, tourism and wildlife. However, the art of domesticatimng
>elephants disappeared with the demise of the Sultans, over 300 years ago.
>Therefore, the PHPA & TSI went to Thailand and bought trained elephants and
>transported them across land and sea, together with their mahouts, and
>re-introduced the art of domesticating elephants in Indonesia.
>
> It is therefore very unfair to criticise the efforts of TSI in
>enhancing the public awareness of the elephant and its plight in the wild,
>through the well publicised and successful Elephant Walk sponsored by The
>Jakarta Post. Many people are ignorant of the plight of the elephant in the
>wild. This is especially true of the city dwellers who rarely come across a
>wild elephant. But poeple whose lands border elephant reserves in Sumatra
>have had a raw deal for quite a long time. Elephants destroy crops and at
>times even kill people. The danger to elephants in Sumatra (and across much
>of Asia) in the present situation is that because they have no commercial
>value, and are a potential threat to human life and property, they are
>likely to be eliminated from agricultural communities by the local people.
>In Sri Lanka, on average, about 100 wild elephants are being killed by
>farmers every year!. In both Indonesia and Sri Lanka, human-elephant
>conflict seems to have replaced poaching!
>
> The slaughter of elephants is a direct consequence of how farmers
>percieve the value of elephants? In both countries, there seems to be no
>advantage to the ordinary man of having elephants around. For those people
>who live next to an elephant reserve, the presence of wild elephnats is
both
>a curse and a liability. The killing of an elephant therefore removes a
>serious pest. Thus many farmers do not really regret the disappearence of
>the elephant from their neighbourhood. For the rural poor who suffer so
many
>problems such as inadequate food, insufficient health, fluctuating
rainfall,
>increased oil prices, World Bank and IMF, elephants must surely be a luxury
>- a luxury that they cannot afford.
>
> Capture and training of problem elephants in the service of man i
>far more sensible than doing nothing and seeing them decimated by irate
>farmers. Thwe human-elephant conflict is real and it seems to lead in just
>one direction: the destruction and eventual elimination of elephants,
unless
>innovative measures are adopted now. This is what both PHPA and TSI are
>trying to do in Idnonesia. It is easy for armchair conservationists to
>criticise these efforts,. but in the end it is these organizations that
>really are faced with the resolution of problems in the field.
>
> Total preservation of wildlife is a luxury many poor countries in
>Asia cannot afford in the face of the legitimate aspirations of the people
>for a better standard of living. As Dr Graham Child points out, "If
wildlife
>is permitted to contribute to the welfare of people, they will not be able
>to afford to lose it in their battle for survival. If wildlife does not
>contribute significantly to their well being, people will not be able to
>afford to preserve it, except as a tourist curiosity in a few protected
areas".
>
> The TSI has been in the forefront of endangered species
>conservation in Indonesia for many years. It has provided funds in support
>of many ex-situ and in-situ conservation programmes. Some NGOs who wish to
>preserve the elephant, are rarely those who have to pay the cost. While the
>peasant farmer becomes destitute overnight, as a result of elephant
>depredation, the wll off animal lover or NGO activist wants to enjoy
wildife
>spectacle at a minimal cost! It is far better for all influentail NGOs to
>join and help resolve the current conflict between man and elephant in
>Indonesia than criticise every effort by well meaning conservation agencies
>such as TSI in Indonesia. I very much hope that TSI continues to promote
the
>public awareness of the plight of the elephant in Indonesia. An enlightened
>public will then be more receptive to conservation of the elephant and
other
>endangered species in Indonesia.
>
>Prof. Charles Santiapillai
>Dept. of Zoology,
>University of Peradeniya
>Sri Lanka
>e-mail: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>telapak mobile wrote:
>
>> Para pemerhati lingkungan,
>>
>> Atas nama PANTAU (jaringan LSM untuk pemantauan perdagangan hidupan liar
Indonesia) saya menyatakan protes keras pada Taman Safari dan harian The
Jakarta Post yang telah melansir sebuah tontonan dan atraksi "eksploitatif".
>>
>> Kenapa saya sebut eksploitatif ? Tidak lain karena keduanya telah
mempromosikan sebuah acara yang mengajak publik untuk bisa menikmati
kesengsaraan hidupan liar Indonesia. Mereka seolah2 tidak merasa bahwa
setiap yang hidup di muka bumi ini juga perlu mendapatkan keadilan. Betapa
tidak beberapa waktu lalu kedua lembaga tersebut membawa Gajah Sumatera ke
dalam kerumunan orang yang sedang berolahraga pagi di Stadion Senayan,
Jakarta. Setelah itu gajah yang khusus didatangkan dari TSI juga disuruh
untuk melakukan berbagai atraksi di hadapan orang banyak. Yang lebih
mengenaskan adalah diadakannya LOMBA TARIK TAMBANG melawan GAJAH.
>>
>> Terlepas dari menang tidaknya, sebenarnya hal ini dapat mendorong publik
semakin tidak peduli pada kelestarian dan hak hidup Gajah. Orang bisa
dengan seenaknya menyiksa binatang besar yang konon perkasa ini. Padahal
selama ini habitat Gajah di Indonesia semakin lama semakin tergusur oleh
aktifnya konversi hutan. Hampir tak ada ruang buat mereka untuk hidup dan
berkembang biak. Lebih jauh salah satu pemrakarsa kegiatan adalah Taman
Safari Indonesia yang katanya "LEMBAGA KONSERVASI EX-SITU".
>>
>> Sementara itu dengan naifnya pihak The Jakarta Post yang telah terkenal
di kalangan expatriat ternyata menyelenggarakan acara tersebut dalam rangka
merayakan HUT-nya. Lalu apakah ulang tahun yang berdekatan tanggalnya
dengan HARI BUMI harus dirayakan dengan sebuah hal yang tidak mencerminkan
kepedulian terhadap lingkungan? Yang lebih mengenaskan lagi peristiwa ini
disiarkan di media televisi dan ada petinggi PKA (dulu PHPA) yang
berkomentar mau menyelamatkan Gajah.
>>
>> Saya kira sudah saatnya bagi kita para pemerhati lingkungan untuk dapat
berkontribusi terhadap berbagai peristiwa sehari2 yang tidak mencerminkan
budaya KEADILAN terhadap LINGKUNGAN. Kejadian tersebut adalah cermin budaya
antroposentris dan arogan.
>> Tulisan ini saya buat untuk mengajak para pecinta lingkungan agar lebih
berhati2 dan kritis terhadap permasalahan lingkungan di sekitar kita.
>>
>> Salam,
>> Hapsoro
>> Koordinator PANTAU
>
>
>
>
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