Elephant threat sends 11 schools in Aceh to remote learning
Eleven schools across six villages in Bener Meriah regency, Aceh, suspended in-person classes on Thursday after a week of repeated wild elephant sightings. Students will learn remotely until officials consider it safe for them and their teachers to return.
Elephants reported near schools
The switch followed encounters that disrupted classes earlier in the week. On Nov. 3, three elephants entered the grounds of SDN Pantan Sinaku elementary school in Pintu Rime Gayo district. Staff sent all students home at about 10 a.m. local time, AJNN reported.
Bener Meriah Education Agency head Saidi said several schools had reported elephants nearby. "Two days ago, a school reported an elephant behind its premises. School officials said elephants sometimes enter the compound when the sky turns cloudy," he told Kompas.com on Thursday.
Acting Communications and Information Agency head Ilham Abdi said protecting students and teachers took precedence during the emergency. "Children's safety is our top priority. The local administration recognizes the importance of education, but in an emergency like this, the safety of students and teachers must come first," he said on Thursday.
The administration also asked parents, school staff and other residents to remain alert and prevent children from approaching places where elephants gather or may pass through.
Emergency declaration and damage to homes
The school closures came during a 14-day non-natural disaster emergency declared by the regency administration over human-elephant conflict in Pintu Rime Gayo. The designation runs from Oct. 30 through Nov. 12, 2026, according to IDN Times Sumut's Oct. 31 report.
An initial subdistrict count listed 95 affected households in six villages: Blang Rakal, Ulu Naron, Pancar Jelobok, Negeri Antara, Pantan Lah and Pantan Sinaku. IDN Times Sumut said the figure still required verification. AJNN reported on Nov. 3 that an estimated herd of about 50 wild elephants was roaming near settlements in the district.
The damage continued after schools switched to remote learning. Ilham said on Nov. 6 that elephants had damaged two more homes the previous night, Waspada.id reported. He also said the regency had not yet seen concrete action from the Aceh Natural Resources Conservation Agency, known as BKSDA, or the Forestry Ministry.
Fatal encounters and changing elephant routes
Encounters with elephants have killed several people in Bener Meriah over the past decade. The latest fatality was in February, when a farmer was trampled while trying to drive an elephant away from his farmland, according to The Jakarta Post.
Mongabay identified him as Mashar, also spelled Musahar, a 53-year-old resident of Pantan Lah. Its March 2026 report said an elephant herd trampled him on Feb. 21 after he followed elephant tracks near his family's corn field.
In the same report, Aceh conservation agency official Teuku Irmansyah suggested that Cyclone Senyar may be contributing to human-elephant conflict. The storm struck in November 2025 and killed more than 1,000 people across Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra. Teuku said the resulting flash floods and landslides had changed elephant routes and movement patterns.
The IUCN has listed the Sumatran elephant as critically endangered since 2011. An Indonesian Elephant Conservation Forum assessment obtained by Mongabay in 2022 estimated that 924 to 1,359 remained in the wild, but the underlying field surveys had been conducted about two decades earlier.