KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal has ordered state authorities to examine in detail the recent deaths of six endangered Borneo pygmy elephants.
His directive called for State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Christina Liew to be briefed of the situation and to make efforts for immediate implementation of preventive and protective plans.
The Sabah Wildlife Department was told to be thorough in the probe into the elephants’ death and work closely with the Sabah Forestry Department in protecting wildlife and forests.
Shafie said the two agencies should also work with non-governmental organisations in establishing forest corridors without concern for the business interests of individuals.
“If real measures had been taken to check on human-elephant conflict as well as other issues including poaching, the deaths of these endangered gentle giants of Sabah, with one as young as a year old, would not have occurred.
“Perhaps the previous government did not have the political will to push through more drastic action which would have affected big logging companies and plantations,” the Chief Minister said in a statement yesterday.
Shafie said he did not want “lip service” but the immediate implementation of short-term and long-term conservation plans.
“The Warisan government will facilitate such efforts and not bow down to pressure from any group,” he added.
The carcasses of the six endangered Bornean pygmy elephants in the east coast of Sabah aged between one and 37 years were discovered on separate occasions since April 6, with the last one found on Sunday.
Sabah Wildlife Department director Augustine Tuuga said the department had taken organ samples for toxicology and bacteriology tests and the cause of the deaths could only be fully determined once the results were known.
Post-mortem results showed the elephants were not gunned down.
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