SIAK, Indonesia — Forest fires difficult to control? Call in the pachyderm patrol.
Officials in Indonesia are using trained elephants outfitted with water pumps and hoses to help control fires that have claimed vast amounts of forest while sending thick haze into neighboring countries.
For nearly three months, Riau province in East Sumatra has been blanketed by smoke from forest fires and land clearing, especially in peat-rich areas where flames are difficult to contain.
At the elephant conservation center in Siak district, 23 trained elephants are being used as “forest watchdogs.”
Carrying water pumps and other equipment, elephants and their crews patrol burned areas in the national forest to ensure that fires don’t reappear after smoldering beneath the peat.
Supartono, the head of the Riau Forestry Division said the elephants had earlier been trained to help patrol forests to find people encroaching illegally, as well as to resolve frequent conflicts between wild elephants and people by driving the wild elephants that enter human settlements back to their habitats.
So far, Indonesia has been unable to put out fires this year because of intentional burning and a rain shortage.
Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya says about 4.2 million acres have been razed by fires throughout Sumatra and Borneo.
