When tigers and humans collide

If state and federal governments don’t act and have the courage to conserve forest reserves, the Malayan tiger will share the same fate as the Sumatran rhino.

YOU can now add highway accidents together with poaching, habitat loss and wildlife trafficking as one of the main reasons for the decrease in Malayan tiger populations.

Last month two tigers were found dead along highways in Perak and Kelantan, victims of collisions with heavy vehicles.

Recently, a video of a dead tiger by the side of a road went viral on social media. The incident happened when a trailer collided with the animal along the North-South expressway near the Gua Tempurung rest area.

Accidents where tigers end up dead on highways are probably more common in the Gua Musang and Jeli areas in Kelantan, but this latest human-wildlife conflict isn’t only confined to deaths of tigers.

In Gua Musang, the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) has confirmed the deaths of two workers at a rubber plantation. Both of them were the result of tiger attacks.

A few days later, in roughly the same area, a motorcyclist narrowly escaped being the third victim of this maneater after he was thrown off his bike when presumably the same animal lunged at him along a deserted road at night. Luckily, he managed to run off with only slight injuries.

There will be more such human-wildlife conflicts as the tiger’s habitat is gradually reduced, leading to interactions between people and protected animals becoming a lot more common.

Gua Musang-Jeli is one of the most ecologically sensitive areas in the country but according to Global Forest Watch, from 2002 to 2022, the area lost 127,000ha of humid primary forest, making up 46% of its total tree cover loss in the same period. Total area of humid primary forest in Gua Musang decreased by 24% in this period.

And now, the Kelantan state government has in its wisdom decided to remove the environmentally sensitive areas in Gua Musang and Jeli (as well as a few other spots) from the state structure plan. This leaves the remaining 411,297ha of forest in Gua Musang and Jeli now vulnerable to development with few or no restrictions.

“Tigers need large areas to roam. Typically, it is one male per 100 sq km, but it also possible to have one or two females,” former WWF-Malaysia CEO Datuk Dr Dionysius Sharma told me.

He said transient tigers look for a place to settle down themselves and either defend their territory or are on the move.

It is no surprise then that human-wildlife conflicts are on the rise as the tigers’ territory is increasingly urbanised. If there is a road or railway in a tiger’s territory, it will cross it.

Perhilitan has put up warning signs along roads of known tiger sightings, but motorists often don’t slow down or pay heed to the signs until it’s too late.

Education campaigns, lowering speed limits and using speed bumps to slow down traffic in prime habitat or ecologically sensitive areas may help, but one way of preventing accidents with animals on these roads would be to build eco-viaducts, which are essentially purpose-built animal crossings over or below highways.

Dwindling numbers: It’s estimated that there are fewer than 150 Malayan tigers in the wild today. — Photo courtesy of WWF-Malaysia

“Solutions are never easy when you build linear infrastructure. Eco-viaducts are not straightforward, you need to study where these animals frequently cross.

“There is the science behind large mammal crossings, for example in Gerik-Jeli where elephants frequently cross from Belum Rainforest, it was done after 18 months of study by the WWF,” Dr Dionysius said.

Interestingly, highway concessionaire West Coast Expressway has consulted Perhilitan to build its own “ecological wildlife culvert” at the Bubu Forest Reserve near Kuala Kangsar where the new coastal highway intersects.

This is a welcome move and shows that development can go hand in hand with nature conservation if developers truly care for the environment.

But more needs to be done, because there are fewer than 150 Malayan tigers in the wild. There’s a very real possibility that this critically endangered species will disappear in the next five years.Facing unprecedented threats, these magnificent animals could soon go the way of the Sumatran rhino which had gone extinct in 2019.

It is crucial that the Federal Government takes urgent, necessary steps. The Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Ministry has already sent a letter to the Kelantan state government protesting the state’s move to declassify parts of its permanent forest reserve as environmentally non-sensitive areas.

The state’s uncontrolled deforestation is ultimately responsible for the human-tiger conflicts, but its leaders appear to be deaf to criticism.

The tiger has always been associated with our country – our national coat of arms has two tigers guarding a shield, our national football team are called Harimau Malaya. This apex predator is deeply ingrained in Malaysian culture, symbolising strength, courage and the mystical beauty of the jungle.

In the last decade, the country has lost over 350 wild Malayan tigers. If we don’t take urgent action to save this critically endangered species, we will lose our last 150 tigers.

It would be an unmitigated tragedy, an unimaginable loss for the country if the Malayan Tiger were to be extinct because we would only have ourselves to blame.