Who hasn't heard about animal-human conflict? I'm sure many have heard of it. Human-elephant conflict, for example, is often featured in the headlines of national media and online news sites. Elephant conflicts occur due to the shrinkage of elephant habitat, from forests to residential areas or plantations.

These animals, whose Latin name is Elephas maximus sumatranus, have a strong memory of the paths they take. Adult male elephants usually live alone and do not have a definite moving path.

Unlike the males, adult female Sumatran elephants tend to live and move in groups. The group usually contains adult female elephants and calves and is led by the oldest female elephant in the group. This group of elephants usually follows the same path from the beginning. It is not uncommon for the forest that becomes the elephant's path to be converted into residential areas or plantations. This is often the trigger for conflict between elephants and humans.

Elephants that feel that it is their path will still go through the path, even though it is no longer in shape. If the elephant's path turns into a plantation, such as an oil palm plantation, it is not uncommon for elephants to eat a lot of oil palm stumps, causing losses to the community. This eventually leads to elephants being perceived as pests and makes the conflict between elephants and humans even more complex.

So, if you already have a plantation near the habitat of Sumatran elephants, what can you do to prevent conflict? You can use these simple ways to deter elephants from entering your garden or farm.

1. Build a lookout tower
Build a lookout tower to monitor the arrival of elephants. This way, if a group of elephants is about to enter your farm, it can be anticipated early, allowing for better conflict prevention planning.

2. Creating guard huts surrounded by a moat
Guard huts surrounded by moats in areas where elephants usually travel. The moat will impede the movement of elephants so that conflict prevention can be done earlier and better.

3. Burning a mixture of dried chili peppers, fat and elephant dung3.
If there is a group of elephants moving close to the garden, make a fire of the above ingredients. The smoke generated from burning these ingredients will make the elephants uncomfortable and avoid the garden. This method will be effective only if the wind blows towards the elephant group. But if the wind blows towards the settlements, then this will endanger the community and pose a risk to the respiratory organs.

4. Repel elephants using sound traps
Make sound traps using firecrackers that are set on known elephant entry points. These traps should be set at a safe distance so as not to injure the elephants. If the firecrackers explode, the resulting noise will make the elephants disturbed, scared, and move away from the plantation.

5. Turning on kerosene lamps
With many kerosene or diesel oil lamps around the plantation, elephants will assume that there are many humans in the plantation and will avoid it.

6. Build a non-electric fence such as barbed wire from wood or live plants.
The use of this fence can be used for low conflict and acts as a complement to guarding materials such as lookout towers and ditches surrounding the plantation.

7. Consider the possible use of natural barriers
Natural barriers include ravines, large rivers, or high cliffs. The presence of these natural barriers is one way to inhibit the movement of elephants before entering the plantation area.

The seven points above are simple ways to prevent elephants from entering plantation areas to prevent conflicts between elephants and humans. Do you have other effective ways to prevent elephant-human conflicts from occurring?