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Tsunami Relief

Report on First Visit to Banda Aceh
Report on Second Visit to Banda Aceh

First Visit January  2005

Introduction

In late January 2005, representatives from Australia Zoo and Wildlife Warriors Worldwide visited tsunami-devastated areas of Aceh. The purpose of the trip was twofold: to deliver urgently required veterinary supplies for elephants working to recover bodies from the disaster area, and to provide humanitarian aid to forest guards affected by the disaster. The visit was also an opportunity to conduct a future needs assessment for the joint BKSDA (Regional Conservation Department)/ FFI (Fauna and Flora International) anti-poaching projects operating in Aceh Province.

Our assistance with the disaster had been prompted by a plea from FFI workers concerned about the welfare of the elephants and their mahouts working in the disaster area. Also of concern was the likelihood that wildlife poachers would take advantage of the strained resources of the BKSDA and the lack of anti-poaching patrols during the recovery period. Our mission was therefore to do as much as we could to restore the morale and effectiveness of the BKSDA and local FFI workers, and ensure that the veterinary needs of the elephants were attended to.

Preparations

For two weeks Terri Irwin and staff at Australia Zoo worked frantically to raise funds, collect equipment and supplies, and organise the logistics of the aid mission. At the end of this period over $70,000 of aid including a Toyota Landcruiser, trailer, elephant food, vaccines, veterinary supplies, elephant boots, tools, tents, and other equipment was packed and on its way to Aceh. Some of the veterinary drug wholesalers donated large quantities of worming medications for the elephants, Trailers 2000 donated a $9000 trailer, Scifleet Toyota donated the Toyota Lancruiser, and many individuals donated money, purchased equipment, or gave items that they owned.
The Australian Wildlife Hospital's Senior Veterinarian, Dr Jon Hanger and Australia Zoo's Big Cat Handler Supervisor Giles Clark flew to Sumatra late in January with 250kg of essential supplies, and the remainder followed on a cargo ship bound for Medan, a port on the north east coast of Sumatra.



Giles' Report
23 - 24 January

On arrival at Medan we met with representatives from FFI including South-east Asian Manager Helen Barnes. The supplies were loaded onto an Australian Defence Force C-130 Hercules which flew the team to Banda Aceh late on the night of the 24th January. The FFI office in Banda Aceh, which had survived the tsunami, served as a base for the team over the next week.

Our first priority on arrival was to meet with the Pak Andi, regional Director General of the BKSDA to assess the immediate needs of his workers and the elephants. He himself had lost his wife and daughter in the tragedy, his house was a pile of rubble and twisted metal, and one of the confiscated tigers that had been housed at his residence was dead. Another tiger was missing, and miraculously, a confiscated cassowary had survived the tsunami.

Pak Andi indicated that some of his team had been killed by the tsunami, all had lost family, and many had lost their homes. Nine of the 10 departmental vehicles and 24 of 30 motorcycles were destroyed, leaving the department seriously under resourced and virtually unable to perform wildlife anti-poaching and trafficking duties.

Eight of the 18 elephants usually kept at the elephant camp at Saree, 90 minutes drive into the hills from Banda Aceh, had been brought down to the disaster area to help sift through the wreckage in the search for bodies, particularly those of the families of BKSDA workers. For the past four weeks, the elephants, their mahouts and other workers on foot had worked from dawn to dusk without a day off since the disaster.



 25 January: The Elephants

The eight elephants are temporarily housed at the BKSDA headquarters in the main street. While still standing, the headquarters were badly affected by inundation with mud and debris. All of the elephants are suffering with lacerations and punctures to the feet. These wounds are cleaned and tended to both morning and night by a German veterinarian, Chris Stremme, who has been in Aceh since two weeks after the tsunami.

Chris works with YaGaSu, an Indonesian NGO that provides veterinary care to elephants in Sumatra. Thankfully we find that the elephants are in good hands with Chris, who has 12 years of experience working with elephants as both a keeper and veterinarian. They would benefit from supplementary feed, but considering the circumstances they are in reasonable condition. Chris is grateful for the medical supplies we have brought and thinks that the elephant boots may prevent many of the foot injuries, if the elephants can get used to wearing them. Chris is keen for us to vaccinate the elephants against tetanus because of the high risk work that they are doing, day after day. We are informed by Australian medical staff working in Banda Aceh that there have been nearly 100 human cases of tetanus in the town since the tsunami. Many of these cases have been fatal.

Later in the day we visit the elephants working in the affected areas of Banda Aceh. We are all shocked at the scale and extent of the damage. The seaward half of Banda Aceh is completely destroyed – only the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki seem to be comparable. An Australian journalist we meet in the rubble describes the devastation as “biblical”, and we all agree that the images that we had seen on TV prior to our trip did not prepare us for the complete destruction of the buildings, and the people of the town of Banda Aceh. Of a population of approximately 230,000 maybe 120,000 are dead. The main road through town that runs parallel to the shore and approximately 2.5 km inland marks the boundary between the complete destruction of one side of town and the less affected remainder. Even on the other side of the road many buildings are destroyed, all have serious damage by mud, and some are unsalvageable. Sometimes forgotten is that a massive earthquake shook the town before the tsunami hit.

Many of the large buildings, some up to eight stories high, have partially collapsed, killing dozens of people even before the tsunami hit.
The elephants are sifting through the rubble, moving timber and slabs of masonary as they search for bodies. Four weeks after the disaster, even though most of the obvious bodies have been removed, the smell is pervasive. Tens of thousands still lie hidden or partially exposed in the mounds of rubble and debris.

When found, they are placed in bright orange bags and laid on the sides of the bulldozed roads, waiting for the tip trucks to do another run to the mass grave half an hour out of town. We are told that 1400 bodies are still being found every day. In most cases, weeks of decay prevent identification, and, in reality, tens of thousand of bodies

will never be recovered. They will be bulldozed with the rubble that is being used as fill to reclaim some land from the sea. There is a suggestion that on the reclaimed land a park should be built as a memorial to the dead. The whole experience is sobering for us and we feel almost irreverent taking photographs, but we know that words will not describe the scenes we are seeing.

26 January

We meet with elephant veterinarian Chris Stremme, FFI staff and BKSDA head Pak Andi to discuss the current and future needs of the Forest Guards and the joint anti-poaching projects of FFI and BKSDA. We inform Pak Andi that a shipping container of goods, including the Landcruiser and trailer, is on its way from Australia. Included in the container are tools, tents, tarpaulins and construction materials that will help to get the department and its projects up and running again.

Later in the day we source hundreds of tetanus vaccines from the Australian Defence Force ANZAC Hospital in town, which also serves as the base for the water purification plant and distribution centre. Thankfully, the medicos inform us, there have been no outbreaks of waterborne illnesses such as cholera and typhoid, probably because of the rapid provision of clean water. They kindly donate the vaccines, as well as syringes and needles so that we can vaccinate the forest guards and FFI staff.

27 January

Professor John Pearn, from the Queensland medical contingent, offers to administer the vaccines and we set up our field vaccination centre at the BKSDA elephant camp. In total, 60 FFI and BKSDA staff are vaccinated, and two children of one of the staff. We also vaccinate the eight elephants with horse tetanus vaccine that we brought from Australia. Both animals and humans will need booster shots in one month, which will coincide with our next visit.

Later in the day we help to load a truckload of bottled water and other aid onto a ship that will do a relief run down the west coast to Calang. A smaller town than Banda Aceh, and closer to the epicentre, Calang has lost two thirds of its pre-tsunami population of around 6000. Roads to the towns on the western coast are cut and the only access is by sea or helicopter. Every day multiple relief flights are flown by the helicopters of the British, Australian, US and other defence forces.

Down at the harbour, a few fishing vessels that were out at sea when the tsunami hit survived, and are doing regular relief runs down the coast. Many of the boats did not survive and were washed kilometres inland. As we leave the harbour we see over twenty more body bags being loaded onto a truck.

28 January

We are driven about one and a half hours out of town into the hills to inspect the Saree Elephant Camp, which serves as the usual residence of the elephants that are down working at Banda Aceh. Despite the ongoing hostilities between the GAM (Free Aceh Movement) and the TNI (Indonesian military forces) we are told that the trip is safe and experience nothing to indicate otherwise. The elephants at the camp are in reasonable condition but bored.

One little female orphan is suffering from a lack of discipline because she is not in a herd and must be chained continuously. We talk with Chris the veterinarian about some of his ideas for improving the lives of the elephants, including increasing contact time between the elephants, and perhaps using the animals in a positive way for ecotourism.

29 January

We are informed that people have seen a large Sea Turtle in one of the puddles of water in the rubble. We are escorted to the site by FFI and BKSDA staff to find that a 100kg green turtle has survived for four weeks in a pond of seawater amongst the rubble, nearly 2.5 kilometres from the sea. It takes six of us to carry the turtle to the edge of the pond; we strap to a plank of wood and take it back to BKSDA headquarters on the back of a truck.

Miraculously, the turtle has only minor cuts and abrasions, and a mild injury to the right eye. We flush the wounds and eyes, give some injections of antibiotics and make some phone calls to organise a boat to take the turtle out to sea. Within two hours of his rescue, the turtle is on his way home. About two kilometres from shore we drop the turtle overboard, and it swims strongly, disappearing within a second. The amazing story of animal survival is documented by a Channel 10 cameraman from Australia and airs on national TV. Later that day we find the remains of a less fortunate

turtle that must have died in the tsunami. It too was kilometres in from the shoreline.

January 30

We begin the trip home in a UN chopper from Banda Aceh to Medan. It takes a route initially northwards around the tip of Sumatra, then down the east coast. On the way we see large tracts of beautiful untouched rainforest as we weave through the valleys. But then sadly, this gives way to hundreds of square kilometres of palm plantations, and we wonder how temporary the natural beauty of Sumatra’s forests will be.

The Australia Zoo/Wildlife Warriors team returns to Sumatra in mid-February to deliver more aid supplies to FFI and BKSDA.