Tapanuli Orangutan Found Dead Buried Under Logs

BATANG TORU, KOMPAS — The joint search and rescue team found the body of a Tapanuli orangutan while scouring the Garoga River in Tapanuli Tengah Regency, North Sumatra, on December 3, 2025. Law enforcement officials are tracking down those responsible for deforesting the area surrounding the Garoga River basin.

One of the volunteers who joined the joint SAR team that found the body of the Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis) was Decky Chandrawan (37) from the Indonesian Rafting Federation (FAJI) of South Tapanuli. He said that he initially received a report from residents who suspected that a human body had been found downstream of the Garoga River, Pulau Pakkat Village, Sukabangun District, Central Tapanuli.

"After we arrived at the location, what was visible was just a hand, protruding from a pile of logs that had been carried away by the flash flood. It is understandable that initially, the residents thought it was a human corpse," said Decky when met on Friday (12/12/2025) evening.

The joint SAR team then lifted the pile of wood and saw that the Tapanuli orangutan's body had begun to decompose. According to Decky, the animal still had orange fur on its back, which made the SAR team very certain that it was a rare Tapanuli orangutan, of which there are now fewer than 800 left and is critically endangered.

"I suspect that this is not the only victim (orangutan). There must be more than one, because upstream, the forest is still dense and indeed it is the habitat of orangutans," said Decky.

After the joint SAR team was confident that it was not a human corpse, they immediately left the location to continue the search for victims. They had to depart promptly due to information about another discovery suspected to be a human body not far from the site where the orangutan's body was found.

"The discovery of the orangutan's body was initially kept secret from the public, so that all parties could focus first on the search for the (human) victims of the flash flood," said Decky.

Flash floods caused by the overflowing of the Garoga River have resulted in 47 fatalities in the Batang Toru District, South Tapanuli Regency. Volunteers such as Decky and the National Search and Rescue Agency are still working to scour the Garoga River downstream in search of 27 other victims who have not yet been found.

The Executive Director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) North Sumatra, Rianda Purba, on Monday (08/12/2025), stated that the Batang Toru Forest ecosystem area consists of western and eastern blocks. The western block is the habitat of the Tapanuli orangutan and the Sumatran tiger, and it is also the upstream area of several rivers that overflow and cause flash floods.

"However, the western block of the Batang Toru ecosystem has been the most heavily intervened. Approximately 60,000 hectares of forest there have been reduced due to gold mining, palm oil plantations, hydroelectric power plants, and eucalyptus plantations (plants used as raw materials for paper production)," said Rianda.

On December 10, the Head of the Subdirectorate for River Basin Management Planning (DAS) of the Directorate of Planning and Supervision of DAS at the Ministry of Forestry, Catur Basuki Setyawan, stated that there are 92 flood points from 13 river basins in 11 districts/cities in North Sumatra. Compared to 2019, the land cover in these 13 river basins in North Sumatra has decreased by 9,424 hectares.

According to Catur, the critical land or land without forest cover in the Garoga watershed covers an area of 7,921 hectares or 17.8 percent of the total area of the watershed, which is 44,610 hectares. Not far from the Garoga River, there is also the Batang Toru watershed, where the critical land has now reached 10.2 percent of the total area or 35,092 hectares.

He stated that the Garoga watershed is classified as a short river, as its length from the upstream to the sea is only about 58 kilometers. In addition, the Garoga watershed is also located around very steep hillsides.

On the same occasion, the Director of Certain Criminal Acts of the National Police Criminal Investigation Agency, Brigadier General Mohammad Irhamni, in Batang Toru, stated that a pile of logs was blocking two bridges on both streams of the Garoga River, causing water to overflow into Garoga Village and its surroundings.

"The impact is very severe; the flood swept through all the housing located between the two rivers, as well as the settlements on both sides of the river," said Irhamni.

Based on satellite imagery, there are 110 land clearing points in the Garoga watershed. The team has visited four of these points and found land clearing covering an area of 6-30 hectares. These four points are located on very steep slopes, so when heavy rain occurs, mud and wood materials are directly carried away by the water flow into the river body.

"At kilometer 8, we found heavy equipment, two excavators and one bulldozer. We have already found two pieces of evidence of a crime, so we will formalize this into an investigation to identify who the responsible party is," he stated.

He stated that land clearing at four points in the Garoga watershed was carried out by the palm oil company PT TBS. He emphasized that the authorities will not stop investigating 106 other points of deforestation based on satellite imagery monitoring.