Most villagers of Habaring Hurung in the sub-district of Bukit Batu, Palangka Raya originally came from out of Borneo and had never seen an orangutan other than in posters, photos and news in the media.
One afternoon, there was a commotion in the presence of a large creature of reddish black color and small eyes shielded by flabby cheeks. It was hanging around looking for food in the vegetable gardens behind their houses. The villagers were not aware that the creature was a hungry orangutan. A peat forest near Habaring Hurung was on fire at that time, due to land clearing activities. So it was no wonder that the orangutan looked for food in human settlements.
Fear and lack of knowledge on orangutan protection had caused the villagers to turn to every day tools and sharp objects, trying to drive out the orangutan from their area. The poor orangutan tried to fight and defend himself against blows of barraging woods of various sizes, catapulted stones, machetes and other sharp objects. Until finally, a trident-shaped spear – commonly called sarampang, a traditional Dayak spear to catch fish in the rivers – landed deep in his left thigh. With the last of his strength, the orangutan escaped to a tree.
Fortunately, one of the villagers took the initiative to report this incident to the BOS Foundation at Nyaru Menteng. We were soon in coordination with the Central Kalimantan Conservation and Natural Resources Authority (BKSDA) and quickly sent a rescue team led by veterinarians Maryos V. Tandang and Merryl Yemima.
Arriving at the scene, the rescue team saw the orangutan sitting helplessly in a tree with the sarampang in his left thigh that continued to bleed. The technicians managed to catch him without difficulty as his condition is already weakened.
drh. Maryos operates on Tombak
In Nyaru Menteng, he immediately received serious treatment. The medical team performed a surgery. After an hour, finally the spear could be removed and the wounds on his body cleaned. Vet Maryos said that a wound like that could potentially lead to paralysis due to infection from rusted iron. But thankfully, he gradually recovered well.
We named him Tombak, which in Indonesian means spear. Aged about 15 years, Tombak is a wild orangutan. The ‘flabby’ cheeks – or cheek pads – indicate that he is an adult male. Now, he's healthy again and has been translocated to the Sebangau National Park. The protection status of the park is expected to provide much better chances for Tombak to survive and meet other wild orangutan in the area.
Remember, orangutan is protected by law. If you see an orangutan in conflict with humans, immediately contact your local BKSDA, so that the fate of Tombak will not continue repeating time and again on the other orangutans.
The BOS Foundation, together with the KLHK and the BKSDA of Central Kalimantan will soon conduct the 44th orangutan release from the Nyaru Menteng Rehabilitation Centre to the Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park (TNBBBR).
Every year on April 22, we celebrate Earth Day to honour the planet that is home to us all.
It was a usual day at the Nyaru Menteng forest school, where young orangutans were learning from one another while their human surrogate mothers looked on from below.
