No answers to the jumbo deaths

Daily Express

11-05-2025

Published on: Sunday, May 11, 2025
Published on: Sun, May 11, 2025 Text Size: The endangered Borneo pygmy elephants must be protected to prevent their extinction. THREE pygmy elephants have been killed and decapitated in Sabah within three months of one another. Elephants deaths in Sabah have been on the rise since 2013, when 14 of the endangered pygmy elephants were discovered dead under suspicious circumstances in the state's Gunung Rara Forest Reserve. Since then, a total of 78 elephants have died as of 2024, and this month alone, those three deaths were reported. The deaths of these gentle, playful, baby-faced pygmy elephants with their large ears and long tails are believed to be caused by poisoning, shooting, snaring, poaching for ivory due to market demands, and deliberate retaliatory killings after the elephants entered fields and ate or trampled crops. Deforestation is the greatest hazard and primary driver of human elephant conflicts, as it causes habitat loss due to forest fragmentation. When elephants cannot find food in their normal habitats, which, nowadays, are generally pockets of intact forest surrounded by monocrop plantations, they will wander into oil palm or fruit plantations in their quest for sustenance. According to a June 2024 report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), whose Red List of animal species assesses their risk of extinction, elephants on Borneo Island have become endangered. The study discovered approximately 1,000 Bornean elephants only remaining in the wild rather than the 1,500 previously estimated by government officials and experts. The Bornean elephant is now on the IUCN's Red List of threatened animals. If we do not want to lose these gentle animals, serious action must be taken. Unless there is effective monitoring and enforcement of the laws, tough wildlife regulations and harsh consequences, including hefty fines and imprisonment, the elephant killers are going to continue killing. Except for the arrest of six individuals and their subsequent sentencing on July 14, 2021, the deaths of elephants in the past and present remain unsolved. Above all, as long as there is no effective enforcement on the ground, harsh warnings and incentives will be ineffective. Since Sabah's well-known Kalabakan route has essentially become a hunting highway for hunters, have night patrols been put in place along the route? Are there patrols in the surrounding jungle? Development of highways not only allow hunters access to ivory hunting and poaching, they also threaten the elephants' habitats. Road construction in elephant territories has historically led to an increase in poaching, says Prof Benoit Goossens, director of Sabah research facility Danau Girang Field Centre, who is also a member of the Humans Habitats Highways group (3H), a coalition of environmental and conservation organisations focused on the impact of infrastructure development on wildlife. CAP, with other conservationists, urges the government and relevant authorities to re-evaluate highway alignments and instead develop alternate routes that avoid disrupting key elephant habitats. Finally, strengthening law enforcement is crucial. This necessitates effective patrolling by law enforcement personnel such as park rangers and the deployment of deep forest patrol teams utilising technology like drones and camera traps. The endangered Borneo pygmy elephants must be protected to prevent their extinction. Mohideen Abdul Kader President Consumers' Association of Penang The views expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of the Daily Express. If you have something to share, write to us at: [email protected]