SANDAKAN – With yet another Borneo pygmy elephant found dead in Sabah, all eyes are on the state Wildlife Department, the body responsible for protecting endangered species.
This month alone, four elephants were found dead in different districts in the east coast, all on oil palm plantations. Two died due to suspected poisoning, one drowned in floodwaters, and the last was discovered brutally butchered and skinned.
The last count in 2006 estimated only about 2,000 elephants left.
State Wildlife Department assistant director Sen Nathan said personnel have been working tirelessly to tackle the issue, and a task force was set up in 2019.
He said the Elephant Task Force (ETF) was established to advise the state Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry on implementing best practices to manage human-elephant conflicts, with the Elephant Action Plan 2020-29 as a guide.
It comprises seven institutional members, namely the state Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry (chair), state Wildlife Department (secretariat), state Forestry Department, and non-governmental organisations Danau Girang Field Centre, Seratu Aatai, World Wide Fund for Nature-Malaysia and Hutan.
ETF is divided into four working groups, each with a specific role.
Its scientific working group covers the health and welfare of elephants, habitat and population monitoring, and captive management. The socio-economic group, meanwhile, covers education and conservation awareness, as well as community engagement.
The task force has been actively discussing a solution to the problem.
The state Wildlife Department is also seriously looking at implementing “strict liability” for oil palm plantations, which would see owners being held accountable for elephant deaths on their land.
“In other words, the plantation will have to prove that they are not responsible for the death of an elephant in their compound, rather than the government proving that they are guilty,” said Nathan.
However, he said, there are still a lot of factors to be considered and discussed before strict liability can be implemented.
“For now, we are looking at imposing stricter border control at all plantations. For instance, setting up live cameras at the entrance, and implementing a ‘no-kill’ policy on the plantations.
“We want to prevent outsiders, who are possibly poachers, from entering these plantations."
Nathan, who is also manager of the Wildlife Rescue Unit under the department, said 176 pygmy elephants died in Sabah from 2010 to last year, with half the deaths due to suspected poisoning, or being shot.
While border control at plantations and the “no-kill” policy may protect the giant mammals, there is also the possibility that some cases of suspected poisoning had no criminal intent.
“Some cases were caused by unintentional poisoning. For instance, an elephant could die after consuming a toxic substance on a plantation. To solve this, we have been working with the National Poison Centre (at Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang) to determine the source of the poison,” said Nathan.
“However, a lot of our plans have been halted by the pandemic. If all our plans go smoothly after the pandemic, we can determine the toxins that have killed elephants in the past, and prevent these incidents from happening again.” – The Vibes, February 1, 2021
