John Kennedie, the head of the Riau province nature conservancy office, said local authorities have proposed the status for Senepis forest near Dumai town. He said they would visit Jakarta soon to ask the central government to declare the forest a refuge.

Kennedie said Senepis, covering some 60,000 hectares (148,200 acres) of thick jungle, is estimated to be home to some 33 endangered Sumatran tigers.

Conservationists say the felling of forests to create farmland or plantations is driving the tigers into villages in search of food.

Kennedie said 26 people had been killed in the past three years including four this year. He said his office in recent years had rescued eight trapped tigers from the hands of angry villagers.

Most of these were sent to a private safari park in West Java.

"If approved, Senepis will be the first such conservation park for tigers in Indonesia and tigers from other regions could also be released there," he told AFP.

TERRA.WIRE