Elephants are one of the animals that can be trained, collaborated with by humans and in the past in Aceh it was also used as a means of transportation (not the main), as well as special forces in wars during the sultanate era.
Not without conflict, maybe 10 years ago we often heard of human-elephant conflict, for example in Sampoinit, Aceh, Indonesia. It could be because their habitat in the wild is disturbed, or the availability of food is depleted due to deforestation, and there are other answers.
The photo in this post is a 36-year-old tame elephant named Isabella at the Conservation Response Unit (CRU) camp in Sampoiniet, Aceh Province.
The elephants here are used to block the wild elephants that come down to local residents' settlements or plantations. By mahout, they were very good at giving instructions to this elephant, sometimes in Indonesian, sometimes in Acehnese.
Isabella clearly understood the boss's instructions. Because, they were trained and had been together for a long time. Usually, according to mahout, it takes more than two years to tame the elephant.
Photo by Ariful Usman (
Location: Aceh, Southeast Asia