Tiger kills teenager

A teenager was killed by an endangered Sumatran tiger as he worked on a rubber plantation on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, an official said yesterday.

Riau province conservation agency head Danis Woro said 18-year-old Ahmad Rafi died after being mauled in the Rokan Hilir district on Monday.

“This is the first tiger attack in Riau this year,” Mr Woro said. “The area used to be a tiger habitat but now it has become a plantation area.”

Human-animal conflicts are a growing problem in the archipelago, as forests are destroyed for timber or to make way for palm oil, forcing animals such as tigers and elephants into closer contact with people.

There are fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild, according to the environmental group WWF.