Wild Elephant Kills Indonesian Boy
Pastor Dale Morgan
Wild Elephant Kills Indonesian Boy*
The Associated Press
Thursday, October 25, 2007; 8:12 AM
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- A wild elephant killed a 14-year-old boy who had
hit the animal on a motorbike on Indonesia's Sumatra island, a
conservationist said Thursday.
The boy and his 42-year-old father had been riding home at dusk
Wednesday when they hit the elephant as it crossed the road near their
village in Bengalis district, said Rahmad Sidik of the local
Conservation and Natural Resources Agency.
The elephant stepped on the teenager's head, killing him instantly,
while his father escaped with injuries, Sidik said.
It was the latest fatal incident involving elephants living near or in
Bukit Barisan National Park.
In May, wild elephants searching for food in a village inside the park
trampled a woman and her 3-year-old daughter to death.
Environmentalists say illegal logging and farming are destroying the
endangered animals' natural habitats, forcing them to seek new feeding
grounds.
About 2,500 elephants are believed to live in the park, about 124 miles
northwest of the capital, Jakarta.