KOTA KINABALU: The Bornean elephants that trampled an elderly man to death and injured his wife in Lahad Datu have been herded back into the Tabin Wildlife Reserve.
Sabah Wildlife Department director Augustine Tuuga said there were no plans to take punitive action against the animals that killed Lopis Jubin, 90, and seriously injured his wife Dalama Hamid, 61, at their farm in Kampung Perpaduan Begahad Scheme which borders the reserve.
It was reported earlier that a herd of 12 animals encroached on the farm to forage for food and trampled the couple, who were watching over their crops.
"They (elephants) are always on the move. We try to drive them back to the forest reserve. This is just an unfortunate incident," Tuuga said when contacted Wednesday (Dec 27).
On calls by smallholders in the area for electric fencing, he said the department did not have the funds for it.
"We don’t have an allocation but big plantations pledged to install electric fencing around their estates," he said.
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Bring Back Our Rare Animals executive director Datuk Dr John Payne said efforts to create elephant feeding grounds within Tabin would help reduce encroachment and fatalities in the event of human-wildlife conflict.
It had initiated development and maintenance of such areas inside the reserve with the support of the Wildlife and Forestry Departments, as well as several plantation and corporate partners.
"This programme needs to be expanded. It will not entirely solve the problem, but the risk of human fatalities will be reduced in the longer term," he said.
Payne said elephants live for up to 70 years and routinely move over enormous distances, rarely stopping for long at any one place to feed.
"If you look at Tabin Wildlife Reserve's long border, you can find some fences are functioning and some are not, some work occasionally and some are not in an ideal alignment to be effective. There are also sections with no fencing," he pointed out.
He said it was important to ensure the fences were properly maintained.
