by WAY KAMBAS, LAMPUNG, INDONESIA – The Sumatran elephant could be extinct in the wild within three decades unless immediate steps are taken to slow the breakneck pace of poachers and deforestation, environmentalists warn. Sumatran elephants out to find food in between patrolling the conservation looking for illegal loggers who are destroying the habitat of Sumatran elephants on June 13, 2010 in Way Kambas, Lampung, Indonesia. Sumatran elephants are becoming increasingly endangered due to the destruction of their habitat by logging, palm oil and rubber industries. This has resulted in the animals increasingly invading local villages, at times trampling locals to death and destroying homes and crops, as they return to land which was once their habitat and has now been settled by humans following logging.
Villages in Lampung saw 327 elephants invade in a three month period during 2009, causing death and destruction as their own habitat continues to be threatened and depleted. Forest rangers and activists from the Wildlife Conservation Society are trying various methods to return them to the forests, including training them to keep away, along with hunting for illegal loggers. The current population for the mammals is estimated at 2000 to 2700. (Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)
Januar, a 2-week old Sumatran elephant, plays with his mother Kartini at Indonesian Safari Park in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Thursday, Jan. 20, 2011. Indonesia’s endangered elephants, tigers and orangutans are threatened by shrinking habitat, which is cut and burned to make way for plantations or sold as lumber. Only 3,000 Sumatran elephants are believed to remain in the wild. (AP Photo/Irwin Fedriansyah)
A trainer give treatment to a Sumatran elephant in between patrolling the conservation looking for illegal loggers who are destroying the habitat of Sumatran elephants on June 13, 2010 in Way Kambas, Lampung, Indonesia.
A newly-born Sumatran elephant stands with his mother only hours after its birth at Surabaya Zoo in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, Monday, Dec. 20, 2010. Indonesia’s endangered elephants, tigers and orangutans are threatened by shrinking habitat, which is cut and burned to make way for plantations or sold as lumber. Only 3,000 Sumatran elephants are believed to remain in the wild. (AP Photo/Trisnadi)
Noni, a four-day baby Sumatran Elephant (Elephas maximus sumatrensis), walks near her mother Intan at Taman Safari park in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Tuesday, May 23, 2006. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)
Elephant keeper give food coconut midrib to Sumatran elephants on June 14, 2010 in Way Kambas, Lampung, Indonesia.
Sumatran elephants walk across a beam during morning practice at the Elephant Training Centre in Minas, Indonesia’s Riau province February 29, 2008. The Sumatran elephant, the smallest of the Asian elephants, is facing serious pressures arising from illegal logging and rapid forest conversion to palm oil plantations. As forests shrink, elephants are increasingly closer to fields and cultivated land, generating conflict with humans that often result in the death of the elephants by poisoning or capture, according to a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) report in 2007. The Minas Elephant Training Centre protects more than 40 elephants from around 200 elephant populations in Riau’s forests. REUTERS/Beawiharta (INDONESIA)
A newly-born Sumatran elephant feeds from its mother, 20 years old Lembang, only hours after its birth at Surabaya Zoo in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, Monday, Dec. 20, 2010. Indonesia’s endangered elephants, tigers and orangutans are threatened by shrinking habitat, which is cut and burned to make way for plantations or sold as lumber. Only 3,000 Sumatran elephants are believed to remain in the wild.
