By: Syamsidar
Pekanbaru (19/04)-The Flying Squad elephant calf born on January 31, 2011 now officially bears the name Imbo. In front of 50 guests, the ceremony was held on Thursday, April 14, 2011 in Tesso Nilo National Park. To mark the inauguration of the elephant calf's name, the wife of the Regent of Pelalawan Regency, Hj Ratna Mainar Harris, accompanied by WWF Honorary Supporter Nadine Chandrawinata, cut the tumpeng brownies (elephant food).
Cutting the tumpeng brownies was given by the wife of Pelalawan Regent to Lisa, Imbo's mother. Then in turn, invitees including the Head of the Natural Resources Conservation Center, Riau, Head of Administration of the Tesso Nilo National Park, WWF Honorary Supporter gave pieces of the tumpeng to Lisa and other Flying Squad elephants. Meanwhile, Imbo happily ran around his mother, adding to the excitement of the elephant calf's name announcement. After cutting the tumpeng, the wife of Pelalawan Regent and her entourage had the opportunity to ride one of the female elephants, Ria. The elephant food platter this time consists of four elephants and their caretakers (mahouts).
The elephant food platter this time was very special because it was cooked by WWF Honorary Supporter, Nadine Chandrawinata and the participants of the Tesso Nilo National Park ecotourism activities the day before. In addition to participating in the ceremony, WWF's Honorary Supporter and seven other people conducted an ecotourism trial in Tesso Nilo National Park for two days.
The name Imbo was given by the Director General of PHKA (Forest Protection and Nature Conservation), Darori, taken from the Pelalawan Malay language which means forest. The name implies a common hope that Tesso Nilo National Park can be well protected so that it becomes a safe habitat for Sumatran elephants and tigers living in the forest area.
Kurnia Rauf, Head of the Natural Resources Conservation Center, in his speech said that Flying Squad is one of the techniques for handling human-elephant conflicts that has been proven to reduce community losses due to these conflicts. He added that BKSDA Riau plans to build two more Flying Squad teams in Riau to handle human-elephant conflicts. One of them will be stationed in the Balai Raja-Duri elephant enclave, where human-elephant conflicts have been common.
Tourism in TNTN
The day before Imbo's naming ceremony, 10 TNTN ecotourism participants consisting of WWF supporters and fundraisers arrived at the Flying Squad camp. Tesso and Nela welcomed the guests with a flower shower. Nela, now 4 years old, is Lisa's first child born on February 23, 2007. Nela and Tesso now have several skills that can be demonstrated to visitors. Both Flying Squad elephant calves (Nela and Tesso) are prepared to support ecotourism activities in TNTN.

WWF's honorary supporter Nadine Chandrawinata then had the opportunity to bathe the baby elephant 'Imbo" and her mother Lisa. Meanwhile, other visitors watched this activity while occasionally having to be alert because Imbo with his agile movements ran here and there.

The next day, the ecotourism trial participants walked along the Nilo River and saw Sialang (honey) trees. The participants also participated in a simulation activity to install camera traps as one of the methods for tiger population and distribution research. Tesso Nilo is also the habitat of the endangered Sumatran tiger. Camera traps placed in the Tesso Nilo forest managed to document nearly 200 photos of tigers. From these photos, it was later identified that there are 11 individual Sumatran tigers in the area.