GROWING plants that are inedible to elephants can help avoid conflict with humans, preventing damage at plantations and settlements, an expert opined.
Aceh Conservation Response Unit director Wahdi Azmi said elephant-human conflicts remained prevalent in Sumatra because of continued deforestation, affecting the food source for wildlife, according to The Jakarta Post.
Wahdi, tasked with ensuring the survival of elephants in his jurisdiction, said the animals were initially not familiar with oil palm fruit and needed a vast surrounding as their home range.
"But ever since the loss of their habitats to plantations, the fruit is all that is available to them and they have found it palatable. They raid oil palm plantations because they like eating the fruit," he said recently.
Aceh is home to the largest population of the critically-endangered Sumatran elephant.
There are at least 500 elephants living there out of a population of 2,500 on the island.
Wahdi said people should look into the history of the Aceh Sultanate, which gained wealth from exporting pepper and nutmeg.
Planting the crops nurtured the people's coexistence with elephants because the animal did not eat them.
"We can serve both animal conservation and economic interests hand in hand by growing the right commodities," he said.
"The people on the eastern coast of Aceh, for example, grow patchouli plants, which are disliked not only by elephants, but also wild boar."
Patchouli oil is a popular essential oil and is extensively used in the perfume industry. It has no synthetic substitute, so there is high demand for it, and Indonesia is one of the major producers of patchouli oil.
Beside patchouli, other crops recommended were oranges, limes, lemons and cloves.
"Hopefully more people are willing to plant these commodities. But of course, each community has a different preference. The commodity must suit the community's needs," Wahdi said.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature changed the population status of the Sumatran elephant from "endangered" to "critically endangered" because nearly 70 per cent of its habitat has been destroyed in the past 25 years, leading to human-elephant conflicts and the loss of more than half the elephant's population in one generation.
The Aceh Natural Resources Conservation Agency recorded 170 conflicts between humans and elephants from 2012 to 2017, in which 54 elephants died and 19 people were injured.