Firman Hidayat, Samarinda – The elephants also entered villages and destroyed paddy fields. "It is hard for the elephants to get food now," said Arid Data Kesuma, a staff member of the Heart of Borneo World Wide Fund for Nature Indonesia, in a press release which Tempo received yesterday.

The human-elephant conflict has increased during the past five months, with the elephants' habitat being changed to oil palm plantations.

Arif said that this has caused a reduction in the Kalimantan elephant population and, based on the last survey, there were only 60-70 Pygmy Borneo elephants left.

Samsuardi, a member of the Indonesian Elephant Conservation Forum, the agency that carried out the survey, said that the elephant herds mostly live in small forests around the village. They target the oil palms as these are their favorite food.

According to Samsuardi, based on the Landsat analysis, there has been an immense conversion of forests to oil palm plantations.

These elephants also destroyed villagers' plantations in Semunad Village. The 350 hectare oil palm plantations, which belonged to 175 families, came from a Nunukan Regency Government loan.

Some of the plants and seeds, which have just been planted, were all eaten by the elephants. Samsuardi said that similar damage had occurred in other villages in Sebuku.

He advised that plantation managers cooperate with the general public and government to deal with the elephant attack. According to him, the best way was to consider the habitat of the elephants when preparing plantations.