Sumatran elephants run out of room as fires spread

JAKARTA – A surge in wildfires across Sumatra is putting critically endangered Sumatran elephants at greater risk of extinction, with hundreds of thousands of hectares of their habitat now affected by fires.A new report by environmental group Geopix found that about 382,778ha of elephant habitat were affected by fires throughout August. Further fires affected 147,550ha between Sept 1 and 8 across 21 population pockets on the island, which accounted for around 7.06 per cent of the total elephant habitat.