5 October 2009
The elephant and the landslide
Posted by Dave Petley
In one of the strangest stories of the year, Tempo Interaktif in Indonesia reports the death of an elephant, and three people, in a landslide in Sumatra:
“Heavy rains in Lampung Province have triggered landslide which killed three people in Tanggamus Regency and cut the Sumatra inter-provincial road in the western coast of the island on Sunday. A hillside was heavily eroded by the rain and mudslide blocked the main inter-provincial road in Way Kerap Village in Semaka Tanggamus Subdistrict. One wild elephant was also killed by the mudslide in Tanggamus.”
It is of course irrational to feel more sad about the death of the elephant than that of the people, but this is a commonly-experienced feeling in these situations. I am not sure why.