KOTA KINABALU: Hot on the heels of a herd of Bornean elephants feeding on Napier grass planted in Kinabatangan's Bilit eco-tourism area, their jumbo "cousins" have also been seen foraging on the grass in neighbouring Lahad Datu.
"Two elephant herds have entered the grass-planted pasture area in the Tabin Wildlife Reserve on Aug 12. This is great to see, and it has been their longest stay in the area," Borneo Rhino Alliance (Bora) chief executive officer Datuk Dr John Payne said.
An estimated 30 elephants, including young calves, have grazed the area over the past two weeks.
The grass pasture, initiated at the periphery of the Tabin reserve by Bora in 2021, is an award-winning initiative that began with Napier grass planting on a 20ha site at the southern fringe of Tabin.
A grant from the Hornbill Award helped Bora develop the area with government supervision and support from oil palm growers in the adjacent area.
"It is bearing fruit, the grass pasture is attracting elephant herds," said Payne, who is also a trustee with Responsible Elephant Conservation (Respect), which was involved in the successful grass planting at a resort area along the Kinabatangan river in Bilit.
Bora programme director Dr Zainal Zahari Zainuddin said that the Tabin area was chosen as part of efforts to keep the elephants within the Tabin reserve and prevent them from straying into neighbouring oil palm plantations, farms and villages.
Dr Zainal, who oversees the work on the ground, said Bornean elephants in Sabah have become "addicted" to oil palm.
"Every elephant under the age of forty in the Lahad Datu and Kinabatangan areas has learned from its mother that the place to find plentiful food is not in the forest, but outside, in plantations or farms," he said.
"What we are trying to do is promote a long-term and large-scale programme to attract them back into the areas where they are supposed to be - wildlife reserves, sanctuaries and forest reserves."
He said the only thing that can compete with oil palm is to divert the attention of elephants to lush grass - "not too short, not too old, along with concentrated mineral sources (salts).”
Payne said strong support from the Sabah Wildlife Department, Forestry Department and nearby plantations is allowing them to carry out conservation work to reduce or eliminate human-elephant conflicts.
"This year, a grant from CIMB Foundation has allowed us to jointly expand the pasture to other sites on the fringe of Tabin.
"Collaboration is key. Bora and Respect as NGOs have similar aims - to manage wild elephants by creating a series of feeding grounds. Every day they feed there is a day out of the estates, farms, or villages," he added.
He said elephants visit the Tabin pasture two or three times annually, but they still gravitate back to oil palm, especially in recent years with a massive wave of oil palm replanting ongoing.
"Both the chipped fallen trunks of the old oil palms and the new plantings are constantly attractive to elephants because they find large amounts of easily consumed food," Payne added.
The pasture along Tabin Road managed by the Tabin Elephant Pasture Alliance (TEPA) includes Bora, WWF-Malaysia, plantation companies KL Kepong, Tradewinds Plantation, as well as the Sabah Forestry Department, Sabah Wildlife Department and Tabin Wildlife Resort.
Respect chairman Alexander Yee earlier this month said the Napier grass initiative at Kinabatangan has borne fruit, with elephants turning up to eat the Napier grass planted in the vicinity of a lodge in Kinabatangan in early August.
Yee said the state Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Christina Liew supports the programme to plant Napier grass in Kinabatangan and has proposed creating a food corridor for wildlife in Kinabatangan.
