Volunteer Faisal still vividly remembers the tragic scene of a tiger trapped in a metal cage in 2019 in Lampung Province, Sumatra Island, Indonesia.

The tiger's leg was so badly injured and looked so weak that volunteers later had to amputate its leg to save its life.

The volunteer organization Harimau Kita (Indonesian for our tiger) has been trying to protect Sumatran tigers for years, but it's never easy because hunters can easily set hundreds of traps in the forest.

"They will use specific steel cages made into very strong traps. Not only tigers but also other animals in the forest can be trapped. The traps set by these poachers are the biggest threat to Sumatran tiger populations." Faisal, head of the organization, told reporters.

The endangered subspecies of the Sumatran tiger live only on the island of Sumatra, which was listed as critically endangered on the Red List by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2008. Currently, fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers are surviving in their rapidly shrinking habitat, and the rate of decline is accelerating due to rampant deforestation and poaching.

Fighting to protect Sumatran tigers and create harmony between tiger habitats and areas of human activity is the top priority of the Harimau Kita volunteer organization, which was founded in 2008.

Faisal said the organization currently has more than 100 members, including experts and scholars in related fields, and is supported by about 300 volunteers working from all walks of life on Sumatra.

The volunteers are primarily responsible for surveying and monitoring the survival of Sumatran tigers. "The monitoring task is challenging because we have to cross forests and highlands, which are places full of danger for humans," Faisal said the most dangerous thing for the volunteers is the tigers themselves, and observing their condition up close is not an easy task.

In addition to monitoring, the organization devotes much of its efforts to educating people living near tiger habitats on how to avoid conflicts with tigers and other wildlife.

Leaving Sumatran tigers with abundant and separate living space does not seem to be practical, as the impetus behind land development has been strong.

The only solution, for now, is that humans should learn to live in harmony with the Sumatran tigers because their habitat is declining, mainly due to the conversion of land to housing, mines, and palm plantations, said Aradi Andino, head of the Sumatran Natural Resources Conservation Agency, in a recent press release.