FARMERS near Paya Bungor in Kuantan have lost tens of thousands of ringgit over the past few weeks after rampaging herds of elephants in search of food, destroyed their oil palm saplings, Harian Metro reported.
The farmers from Kampung Paya Rambutan believed the pachyderms came from neighbouring Berkelah Forest Reserve after they moved there from the Remen Chereh Forest Reserve.
Mohd Nazri Mohd Mokhtar, 52, claimed the herds ventured into farmers’ small holdings and orchards after their habitat was cleared for oil palm plantation.
“The elephants started appearing in Kampung Paya Rambutan four years ago, but their presence has become more frequent.
“There are three herds of between eight and 12 elephants that invade our orchards and the latest attack was on Jan 31 where they destroyed many oil palm trees,” he said, adding that he lost 50 trees in the latest incident.
Another farmer, Jamsari Mohammad, 58, said he had to bear losses of more than RM50,000 after his four-year-old oil palm saplings were destroyed.
“The first wild elephant attack occurred early this month and more than 300 oil palm saplings belonging to five farmers were destroyed.
“They are becoming more aggressive when they entered the plantations twice last week. It is possible a different herd entered the plantations each time.”
Farmers have lodged a complaint with the Pahang Wildlife and National Parks Department and the agency is looking into the problem.
> A little girl riding a bicycle on rims without tyres has tickled the hearts of netizens, Kosmo! reported.
Shared by TikTok user Cikiyin, the video of the child casually pedalling her bicycle has caused some viewers to comment that she has the potential of becoming a national cyclist one day.
“When she grows up, she can replace Datuk Azizul in the keirin event,” joked Ahmad Tirmizi, referring to two-time Olympic medallist Azizulhasni Awang.
“My daughter is the same, riding a bicycle without tyres, casually using the rim to move,” said one user named Rabie Adawiyah.
● The above article is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with this ' >'sign, it denotes a separate news item.
