An assemblyman is asking the Johor government to address human-wildlife conflicts by studying management measures, citing repeated incidents of wild elephants damaging crops in Bekok.
Tan Chong (BN-Bekok) said the safety and peace of residents and smallholders in his area were being seriously disrupted by the mammals.
“Wild elephant herds have repeatedly entered plantations and residential areas.
“Recently they destroyed durian, oil palm and banana crops, as well as fences and storage sheds belonging to smallholders.
“These incidents have caused significant distress and losses to residents and smallholders,” he said during the debate session at the state assembly sitting in Bangunan Sultan Ismail, Kota Iskandar.
At the same time, Tan expressed gratitude to the Johor Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) for their efforts in capturing one of the elephants.
However, he noted that wild elephants continued to return, causing further damage to smallholders’ crops.
“I have just received images through WhatsApp showing oil palm trees being damaged by elephants in Bekok.
“Smallholders in Labis have also called to report frequent incursions over the past few days,” said Tan.
Therefore, he urged the state government and Johor Perhilitan to review the matter and implement more effective measures to prevent similar incidents in the future.
Tan had previously highlighted wildlife conflicts on his social media posts.
Meanwhile, state health and environment committee chairman Ling Tian Soon said several strategic measures involving modern technology and physical patrolling had been implemented by Johor Perhilitan in hotspot areas.
“Among them is the expanded use of drones as a monitoring tool to detect movements by wildlife such as tigers and elephants, along with integrated night patrols.
“A Community Wildlife Protection module has been developed to provide guidance and training to local communities, enhancing awareness, knowledge and skills for early detection and management of wildlife conflicts,” he said.
Ling was responding to Hahasrin Hashim (BN-Panti) on plans to use drones and night patrols in wildlife conflict areas.
