The two elephants were found dead in the Indonesian province of Bengkulu, in an area of “production forest” in southern Sumatra. The mother and her calf were lying side by side with their tusks still intact.

Unlikely to be poachers, the cause of their deaths – and that of a tiger nearby – at the end of April is still being investigated but conservationists say this is not an isolated case. It is estimated that seven wild elephants have died in Bengkulu since 2018.

The population of Sumatran elephants (Elephas Maximus Sumatranus) around the Seblat district of Bengkulu once thrived, but poaching and deforestation of the animal’s habitat, driven by farming and palm oil plantations, pushed it on to the IUCN’s critically endangered list in 2011.

According to wildlife conservationists in Bengkulu, the population has since plummeted even further. “In 2010, its population was still at an average of 100-150 individuals,” says Ali Akbar, director of the environmental organisation Kanopi Hijau Indonesia. Today, the total population in Seblat Landscape is “not more than 50, making it very critical”.

Increasingly pushed out of their habitat, there are a growing number of incidents of human-elephant conflict, with the animals encroaching on farmland and wandering into settlements.

Prof Burhanuddin Masyud, at the Bandung Technology Institute, estimates that at least 1,585 hectares (4,000 acres) of Sumatran elephants’ habitat were lost between January 2024 and October 2025.

“What is happening in Bengkulu is not just the loss of forests, but a direct attack on the ecology, reproduction and balance of interaction between elephants and the environment. The impact will be multilayered and long-term,” he wrote in a recent post.

Though the most recent deaths are still being investigated, two logging companies’ permits have since been revoked, according to local media reports.

Since the two elephant carcasses were found at the end of April, the Bengkulu Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA), part of the forestry ministry, has begun to monitor Seblat using a thermal-imaging drone.

The head of the BKSDA, Agung Nugroho, says the aim is to establish the extent of the elephant population and its habitat, and what should be done to protect it, including “short-term habitat protection through encroachment control and long-term through improved governance”.

The drones covered a few square kilometres before dawn, when the air temperature was low, making the elephants easier to detect. The monitoring was in locations known to be in the elephants’ range, revealed by dung trails and footprints that were between one and three days old.

Agung hopes the thermal imaging can reveal the health of the population by revealing the number of calves.

“A large number of individuals in a group ensures the long-term genetic sustainability of the population. A small number of individuals in a group and the absence of calves are alarming signs of an unhealthy population, necessitating further strategies such as ensuring corridors between groups for connectivity or translocating elephants from other groups,” Agung says, adding that the agency does not identify where the elephants were seen to protect them from poachers. The scanning identified a group of 17 elephants, including four calves.

Wahdi Azmi, from the Indonesia Elephant Conservation Forum and a member of the Asian Elephant Specialist Group-IUCN, said thermal drones can help understand the distribution of elephant groups, patterns of movement, potential conflicts and detect their presence in remote areas. “However, monitoring alone is certainly not enough if the root of the problem is not addressed,” he says.

Egi Ade Saputra, director of the conservation organisation Genesis Bengkulu, says the monitoring should be followed by action to restore the landscape. “It is time to restore the ecosystem of Seblat by revoking logging and palm oil licences and establishing the landscape of Seblat as a wildlife sanctuary,” he says.

This month, the forestry minister, Raja Juli Antoni, pledged to strengthen conservation efforts at a meeting with experts. “We are serious about saving the Sumatran elephant population, and it’s not easy.”

There were pledges to implement an early warning system for communities around elephant habitat areas and map corridors to connect those areas.

The establishment of a sanctuary is one of a number of schemes being considered in Bengkulu, says Agung Nugroho.

Harry Siswoyo, a wildlife conservationist campaigner at Lingkar Inisiatif Indonesia, says involving local communities, many of which consider elephants a pest, is crucial to success.

“We need to campaign more and more to local communities to change their perspective about the importance of the elephant in the ecosystem,” he says.

Elephants are known as ecosystem engineers because their movements and behaviour help shape forest structure, open natural pathways, create space for new vegetation and play a crucial role in seed dispersal.

“Elephant conservation is not just about saving animals, but also about maintaining the sustainability of ecological systems that support the future of humanity,” Wahdi Azmi says.

In the future, conservationists must move from a conflict-resolution approach to building landscapes that allow humans and elephants to continue sharing space more safely and sustainably, he adds. “This requires a combination of science, policy, landscape management, technology, cross-sector collaboration and long-term community engagement.”