KLUANG: Close to 700 complaints related to human-elephant conflicts have been reported to the Johor Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) over the past five years, says state executive councillor Ling Tian Soon.
The Johor health and environment committee chairman said the most affected districts included Kluang, Kota Tinggi, Mersing and Segamat.
"This is a serious issue in Johor. In the first six months of this year alone, human-elephant conflicts have caused losses amounting to about RM1.1mil.
"While Johor Perhilitan has been actively conducting translocation operations annually, the manpower they have is not enough to cope with the high number of complaints.
"As such, we have reached out to the Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Ministry for assistance, which has led to the launch of a special translocation operation," he said.
He said this to reporters after launching the Johor Elephant Translocation Operation here on Monday (July 14).
Ling added that the operation, which is being carried out from this month until December, is expected to translocate between 10 and 12 elephants.
"In the first six months, Johor Perhilitan managed to relocate five elephants with the limited resources and manpower it has.
"With this new operation, which is receiving support from Perhilitan officers from across Peninsular Malaysia, we expect to double that number," he said.
To support the effort, Ling said the state government has also channelled RM600,000 from its Ecological Fiscal Transfers (EFT) fund for the operation.
"Johor is the only state that has ever made such an allocation, and this shows our commitment to addressing the issue," he said.
