Wildlife rangers act to stop rampaging herd of pygmy elephants

Elephants from the Tabin Wildlife Reserve raiding villagers plantation in Kg Litang in Sukau late October this year is raising the need for more mitigation measures to protect the crops and the endangered elephant. Pix courtesy Japar Usof.

KOTA KINABALU: Wildlife rangers have moved in to stop a herd of 20 endangered Bornean pygmy elephants from rampaging farm lands and a school in Sabah’s central Telupid district.
 
Sabah Wildlife Department director Augustine Tuuga said the elephants had entered the compound of SMK Telupid on Tuesday (Feb 20).
 
This was apart from disturbing farms lands and properties of villagers in Telupid, about 250km from here.

“Our target is to translocate at least three of the more aggressive ones,” he said when contacted.
 
However, due to cost factors, his rangers would try and push back the remaining elephants into the forest reserve.
 
“It cost us about RM30,000 to translocate one elephant. It will be too costly to translocate the whole herd,” Augustine said.
 
He said the operations to capture the more aggressive ones would be done within the week and they planned to translocate the jumbos to the Imbak forest reserve.
 
“It depends on how fast we can catch the few elephants that we want to relocate. Hopefully this can be done by the end of the week,” he said.
 
In some cases, translocations were carried out as part of efforts to conserve the elephants which are critically endangered in Sabah.