Police to record statements from residents over elephant deaths

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KOTA KINABALU: The police will be recording statements from the people living within the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve in Tawau, following the discovery of the 14 carcasses of pygmy elephants believed due to poisoning, recently.

State Police Commissioner Datuk Hamza Taib in disclosing this yesterday added that to date, they have yet to make any arrest and no suspects.

“We are carrying out the investigation jointly with the state wildlife and forestry departments. The police are investigating the case under Section 429 of the Penal Code for committing mischief by killing animals, which carries a maximum jail sentence of five years,” he said.

He said investigation was on-going and that samples extracted from the elephants’ bodies had been sent to the Chemist Department.

“We are still waiting for the results,” he told reporters when asked on the progress of the investigation on the pygmy elephants at the launching of the Sabah Prisons Department Halfway House in Kepayan, near here, yesterday.

Last week, the world mourned when 14 elephant carcasses were discovered at Yayasan Sabah Concession Area FMU 23 in the Gunung Rara Forest, where several oil palm planting and logging activities are carried out.

Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun described the incident as a sad day for conservation and Sabah.

The WWF wildlife group estimates that fewer than 1,500 Borneo pygmy elephants exist, and they live mainly in Sabah and grow to about eight feet (245 centimeters) tall, a foot or two shorter than mainland Asian elephants.

Known for their babyish faces, large ears and long tails, pygmy elephants were found to be a distinct subspecies only in 2003, after DNA testing.

Their numbers have stabilised in recent years amid conservation efforts to protect their jungle habitats from being torn down for plantations and development projects.