KUANTAN: Three deaths in a year may seem an insignificant figure but not so for the endangered elephants of Pahang which number about only 190 in the wild.
Although admitting that three was a low figure, Pahang state Department Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) director Khairiah Mohd Shariff emphasised that the situation must be addressed to prevent more such occurrences.
“Elephants face grave threats when they forage for food in human settlements.
“The animals have no choice really because their habitats have been encroached upon for development,” he told Bernama here yesterday. This has led to human-elephant conflicts involving villagers and large plantations, he said.
Furthermore, food poisoned by pesticide and collapsing in hard to access places after being shot also caused the elephants to die before they could be saved, he added.
Last year alone, claims of crops being damaged by wild elephants ran into almost RM1 million, he noted.
He explained that Perhilitan tried to attend to all reports received.
Despite that, there were complaints claiming the department was not acting on such reports, he observed.
“We follow up on each report but most of them are received late and it makes our work hard as elephants are quick to move from place to place,” he explained.
Khairiah further informed that since 1974 to date, more than 250 elephants have been translocated to more suitable habitats.
“For instance, last year we managed to translocate 10 elephants compared to four in 2010 and three in 2009,” he said.
“We spent more than RM100,000 in the process,” he added. — Bernama