Trapped tiger in South Sumatra to be moved to Lampung

Palembang, South Sumatra (ANTARA) - South Sumatra Governor Herman Deru confirmed that a Sumatran tiger (Pantera Tigris Sumatrae), trapped in Semendo Darat Ulu Sub-district, Muara Enim District, South Sumatra Province, will be moved to Lampung.

The Sumatran forest, as a habitat of tigers, must be protected, Deru stated here on Tuesday.

The governor believed that owing to habitat destruction, the tiger, in search of food, had entered a nearby village and triggered a sense of fear and panic among the local villagers.

He urged the South Sumatran people to not fell trees in the forest in order to help preserve the flora and fauna, including the endangered Sumatran tigers.

"This morning, the tiger entered the trap and will be moved to Lampung since South Sumatra does not have a conservation area like the one in Lampung," he explained.

The South Sumatra Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) had recently installed the trap in a forest area of Muara Enim District after receiving reports of a roaming tiger from local villagers, the agency’s head, Genman Hasibuan, noted on Tuesday.

The agency’s officers installed several trap boxes and cameras in the districts of Pagaralam, Lahat, and Muara Enim following a series of tiger attacks in the areas of those districts.

The BKSDA workers placed goats as baits inside the trap boxes to lure Sumatran tigers into entering them.

In 2019, the agency had confirmed 15 tiger attacks had taken place in South Sumatra Province that resulted in the deaths of five people and injuries to 10 others.

From November to December 2019, the conservation office had investigated six reports of tiger attacks. Hasibuan revealed that the first attack took place on November 16, 2019, in which a 19-year-old tourist got injured.