Saltwater crocodiles prefer rivers or estuaries with murky water, plenty of tree logs or roots, an abundant food supply, and far from human activities.

The reason for the increase in crocodile encounters in part of Indonesia is due to a greater human presence and destruction of habitat. Blast fishing and turn over of habitat into farms push the crocodiles into a desperate situation with less of their traditional food or habitat available.

From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

You will recall this BBC report a couple of weeks ago:

When Sariah went to fetch water in a pit near her home in Bangka Island, Indonesia, last September, she was unaware that a 3m-long saltwater crocodile had been resting in the crater, watching as she filled one of her buckets.

“The water was calm and there was no sign of a crocodile, so I decided to take a bath. Suddenly, it appeared out of nowhere and bit me, dragging me by my left arm into the water,” the 54-year-old says.

Indonesia sees the most saltwater crocodile attacks in the world. In the past decade, there have been about 1,000 attacks, killing more than 450 people. Nearly 90 of these attacks took place in Bangka and its neighbouring Belitung island, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Bangka island is one of the richest tin-mining regions in the world.

The island – almost the size of Hawaii – has a population of one million, and about 80% of them are miners. More than 60% of the island’s land has already been converted into tin mines, says wildlife conservation group Walhi. Many of these mines are illegal.

Decades of tin exploitation have stripped the island of its forest, leaving behind thousands of vast craters and pits that resemble a lunar landscape. And as land deposits diminish, miners are turning to the sea.

That means saltwater crocodiles, which can also live in freshwater, are squeezed out of their natural habitats. Now they are living in abandoned and active mining pits close to people’s homes, contributing to the rise in attacks.

Last year’s prolonged dry season, driven by climate change, dried up the well in front of Sariah’s house. Her water supply was cut after she fell behind on payments for three months. So, the abandoned pits were the only source of water for her family and many others.

Five days after the attack on Sariah, a miner in the island was almost killed by a crocodile when he was washing tin ore in another pit. He suffered injuries in his head, shoulder and an arm.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-67004770

I filed this complaint:

The report claims that “Last year’s prolonged dry season, driven by climate change, dried up the well in front of Sariah’s house”
Droughts in Indonesia are driven by El Nino cycles and the Indian Ocean Dipole. When these are positive, as they have been this year, droughts occur in the region – see here:
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/enso/
Neither of these cycles are connected to climate change, and there is no evidence that the current drought is any worse than previous ones in Indonesia
A correction should be published to make this clear

The BBC has responded:

Thank you for contacting us about the article: “Why Indonesia can’t stop crocodile attacks.”
We have noted your concerns that you feel it was wrong to attribute the drying up of a well to climate change.
Upon review, we found that the article states that it was ‘driven by’ climate change, as opposed to being a direct result. The evidence supporting worsening droughts in Indonesia due to climate change is supported by established organisations including the World Bank and the United Nations. Their outlook is provided at the links below which we hope you will find useful. However, we acknowledge you feel that greater attention could have been given to the historic El Nino cycle which affects Indonesia.
(The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sources.)
https://indonesia.un.org/en/172909-climate-change
https://climateknowledgeportal.worldbank.org/country/indonesia
We appreciate your feedback. All complaints are sent to senior management, and we’ve included your points in our overnight report. These reports are among the most widely read sources of feedback in the company and ensures that your concerns have been seen by the right people quickly. This helps inform their decisions about current and future content.
Thank you, once again, for getting in touch.

Neither of the links they have given offer any evidence supporting worsening droughts in Indonesia.

The first link is just a general global assessment of climate change, which is not specific to Indonesia at all. Even then it is no more than a political propaganda statement, containing no science or data at all.

The second link takes us to the World Bank Portal.

Naturally, the darker the blue, the wetter the year – click on the link, and you can hover over the chart to see the actual data. It would appear that recent years have actually been wetter than average.

The Portal also has this chart, which shows two things:

1) Annual rainfall in the last 30 years is higher than previously

2) There is less annual variability between 1991-2020 than in the past.

The increasing trend is confirmed by this graph:

The World Bank has also published a Climate Risk Country Profile for Indonesia. It states:

“Studies point to an overall decrease in average annual precipitation.”

However the only link is to a paper based on short term trends and published in 2007, a period when rainfall was relatively low:

The World Bank claim is also contradicted by this statement in the same paragraph::

“USAID’s climate risk profile for Indonesia describes a decreased average annual precipitation of 3% during 1901–2013, but a 12% increase between 1985 and 2015”,

something which is clearly borne out in the above graph.

The BBC’s claim and response are therefore contradicted by the actual data.

Of course, I will be resubmitting my complaint!