TELUPID: Establishing an elephant-friendly zone with easy access for Bornean pygmy elephants to look for food can help tackle the problem of these animals intruding into settlements.
Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC) director Dr Benoit Goossens said pygmy elephants frequently intruded settlements in Telupid due to the landscape changing from forests into farms, providing easy food access and playgrounds to these wildlife mammals.
“Elephant translocation is not the best long-term solution in resolving human-elephant conflict in Sabah.
…Maybe (we) need to establish an elephant-friendly zone here where there is easy access (for the wildlife) to get food such as bananas and grass, among others,” he said.
Goossens said the translocation programme was expensive, about RM30,000 per elephant, and it stressed the animals.
He said DGFC had installed satellite collars on two elephants, and they were currently conducting research on the mammals’ movement and behaviour to find ways to reduce the conflict.
He noted several areas particularly near oil palm plantations in Telupid, Kinabatangan, Tawau, Lahad Datu, and the Tabin Wildlife Reserve were facing human-elephant conflict, and it was particulrly serious inTelupid.
Forever Sabah project coordinator Claudia Lasimbang also shared a similar view about setting up an elephant-friendly zone, adding such projects were aimed at identifying suitable locations for wild elephants to roam.
Forever Sabah is an initiative jointly undertaken by non-governmental organisations, researchers, state government, and local community through a harmony project between humans and elephants in Telupid.
“Areas favoured by these elephants need to be identified through local knowledge, information gathered by rangers, and scientific data to ensure (the areas) are safe for them.
“The creation of an elephant zone will encourage the rehabilitation of selected areas with food sources and elephant safety as priority,” she said.
Through such project, Claudia said Community-Based Elephant Force (CERT) Team needed to be formed to create a sense of responsibility among the locals on elephant conservation.
As a start, she noted three youths from Kampung Gambaron, Liningkung and Telupid had been selected to form the team, adding that the trio would be given training by Sabah Wildlife Department and NGOs.