KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah government is urging the state Wildlife Department to conduct a thorough investigation on the six Borneo pygmy elephants found dead in oil palm plantations in the state’s east coast areas.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said the Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) state government was committed to the preservation and conservation of wildlife and natural resources.
He said the department must prevent unnecessary elephant deaths.
Sabah Wildlife Department director Augustine Tuuga was reported today as saying that six elephant carcasses had been found at different locations. He said the pachyderms were between one and 37 years old.
Shafie said: “I am aware that much has been said and, perhaps, done by the past government. “However, elephant deaths, whether due to poaching or other causes continue unabated.
“Perhaps, the previous government did not have the political will to push through more drastic measures that would affect big logging companies and plantations?
“I don’t know why it still occurs after so many claims were made by the previous government about solutions.
“I don’t want lip service. I want to see short- and long-term conservation plans drawn up to be implemented on a fast track basis. The Warisan government will facilitate such efforts and not bow down to pressure from any groups.”
The chief minister directed state Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Christina Liew to arrange for a briefing on the situation and see how best to fast-track efforts to protect Sabah’s wildlife.
Shafie also called on the state Wildlife Department and Forestry Department to cooperate and team-up with non-governmental organisations to tackle the issue without fear that they would be in conflict with the business interests of certain individuals.
“I believe that the network is there, but there has been little will in the past to push measures through,” he added.
“The deaths of these endangered giants of Sabah, one as young as a year old, would not have occurred if serious effort had been made to check human-elephant conflicts and other problems, including poaching.”
On May 19, the New Straits Times (NST) reported that the Wildlife Department had deployed a team, including a veterinarian, to investigate after receiving a report that the carcass of a juvenile female elephant had been found floating in Sungai Kinabatangan.
On the following day, Tuuga told NST that no gunshot wounds were found on the mammal, which was about three years old.
He said the department had yet to determine the cause of death. But, he said, a post-mortem had been carried out and samples of the animal’s vital internal organs had been collected for toxicology and bacteriology analyses.