Eye of the Tiger

We dealt with the first monitoring of the tiger conflict at the end of 2014. Every year there were about one or two tiger cow attacks in bohorok district, which we compensated the owners. The number of attacks has started to increase since the beginning of 2020, but there has been a total change since November of that year. Within two months, 10 free-grazing cows were killed after provable tiger attacks. After intensive monitoring with the help of camera trails, one tiger male was detected, which in this way regularly hunts livestock in the protection zone of the Gunung Leuser National Park in the Bohorok district.

Based on these events, we are also responding and transforming our anti-poaching team Green Patrol into an anti-conflict team that specializes in monitoring the sites of tiger attacks and tigers themselves. The aim of this activity is to find solutions so that attacks are not repeated or minimized, while protecting tigers from human retaliation. Our team, led by Zbyňek Hrábek, is already assisting with monitoring of tiger catch for translocation. Communication with local farmers and their support in the night-time cowshed for cows is an important activity, as the tiger hunts mostly at night.

The reason for the increased tiger attacks may also be the loss of their natural food due to the poaching of sambar deer and wild pigs and, of course, the inappropriate herding of cows in the Leuser ecosystem. In 2021, we intend to equip and professionalize the Green Patrol for assistance in resolving tiger conflicts in cooperation with BKSDA, KPH, and NPGL.