Sumatran elephants run out of room as fires spread

JAKARTA – A surge in wildfires across Sumatra is putting critically endangered Sumatran elephants at greater risk of extinction, with hundreds of thousands of hectares of their habitat now affected by fires.

A new report by environmental group Geopix found that about 382,778ha of elephant habitat were affected by fires throughout August. Further fires affected 147,550ha between Sept 1 and 8 across 21 population pockets on the island, which accounted for around 7.06 per cent of the total elephant habitat.