By: Syamsidar

The news lately has been rife with LGBT issues. Many people know what LGBT is. How is the love affair between Junjung and Rahman, are they tripped up by LGBT? These two names that represent the relationship of the male genre have absolutely nothing to do with the issue but the affection between the two is undoubted.

Junjung Daulay, a 38-year-old man, has been caring for and loving Rahman with all his heart for over eleven years. Every day they meet, greet each other in their own language and understand each other's moods.

Morning broke in Tesso Nilo National Park, Pelalawan Regency, Riau. Junjung hurried to meet Rahman where he had moored the previous afternoon. A gentle but unpretentious call always starts their days. "Man, Rahman," calls Junjung as he approaches the elephant to take him for his morning bath in the creek. At the river, five other Flying Squad elephants (3 adults and 2 calves) joined them for the bath.

Rahman's sure steps carried Junjung on his shoulders towards the river. His big feet stepped without hesitation onto the riverbank, slowly towards the center and in an instant his whole body was lost in the surface of the water. While Junjung swiftly remained seated on Rahman, crouching slightly to avoid the water. Slowly Rahman raises his head, then dives again. Junjung then rubbed Rahman's head, rubbing Rahman's body with the palm of his hand.

"Rahman is very happy to be rubbed when bathing, especially on the head. It's like he feels grateful that his big body has been cleaned." said Junjung.

Junjung and Rahman met in June 2004, when he first joined the Flying Squad team. Elephant Flying Squad is a human-elephant conflict management technique that uses trained elephants to drive wild elephants back to their habitat so that losses to communities due to wild elephant disturbances can be minimized. This technique was first piloted by WWF in collaboration with the Riau Natural Resources Conservation Center in Tesso Nilo National Park. In April 2004, four elephants and eight caretakers or mahouts were brought from the Elephant Training Center - Minas, Riau to Lubuk Kembang Bunga Village, Ukui District, Pelalawan. Since then the team has been stationed in the village to help manage human-elephant conflict. Lubuk Kembang Bunga village is directly adjacent to Tesso Nilo National Park and according to a WWF survey was the village that suffered the highest economic losses due to elephant disturbances at the time.

From all the stories with Rahman that Junjung has gone through, he also learned that don't half-heartedly love your job and elephants because there is happiness beyond measure. Despite the challenges and risks of the job as a member of the Flying Squad team who must be prepared to deal with wild elephants during patrols or wild elephant evictions, the love of the job makes these challenges small.