KOTA KINABALU: Wildlife conservation-based tourism is a good way to help control animal-human conflicts and increase the income of villagers in Sabah’s central Telupid district.State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Jafry Ariffin said the ministry needed cooperation from all parties for the plan to succeed.
He said this during a briefing on the mitigation of elephant conflict in Telupid recently.
Jafry said if this initiative worked out as planned, there would be benefits for both humans and animals, whereby conservation can be done while allowing residents to generate income.
Among other matters discussed during the briefing were plans to install a 1.7km-long electric fence at identified areas to reduce the problem of human-elephant conflicts in Telupid.
“We hope the government can consider allocating annual funding to maintain the operational costs of existing electrical fences installed in the other villages in Telupid,” he added.
This comes after a recent incident where a pygmy elephant strayed into a bungalow in Kampung Gambaron II on Sept 12.
The elephant appeared disoriented by the commotion from the public when they saw it, but it managed to leave and go back into the nearby forest.
Wildlife rangers, together with the Community Elephant Ranger Team, police and members from some non-governmental organisations later attempted to find and translocate the elephant.
The effort is ongoing.
