1.7km Telupid electric fence plan
Published on: Tuesday, September 20, 2022
Bornean Pygmy elephant (Elephas maximus borneensis) family, parents with calf. Danum Valley Conservation Area, Sabah, North Borneo, Malaysia. (Pic: WWF/A. Christy Williams)
TELUPID: The Sabah Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment (KePKAS) will study the development of tourism activities based on wildlife conservation here.Its Minister, Datuk Jafry Ariffin, said he was confident that it would not only be able to attract foreign and domestic tourists to the district, but that it would also bring economic returns, especially to the local community.ADVERTISEMENT
However, he added, to ensure that this wildlife-based tourism could be realised, all parties also need to work together to resolve the human-elephant conflict.
He said this when he attended a briefing session on elephant conflict mitigation in Telupid, recently.
Among the matters discussed during the briefing included the need to install a 1.7km long electric fence to reduce the problem of elephant interference.
Following the recent occurrence of elephants entering the village area in Telupid, the Wildlife Department (JHL) assisted by the Community Elephant Ranger Team (Cert), PDRM and several other NGOs had collaborated in efforts to move or translocate the elephants involved.ADVERTISEMENT
To date, the efforts that have been carried out to reduce the problem of elephant disturbance in the Telupid area were the installation of electric fences along 3km in Kampung Bauto and 2.9km in Kampung Gambaron, here.
Because of that effort, he said throughout the end of 2019 until the beginning of this year, no group of elephants passed the area where an electric fence was installed.
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However, at the beginning of 2022, it was found that the elephant had passed the electric fence area because it was not working as the solar panel unit had been stolen by an irresponsible party.
He requested the cooperation of all parties not to steal properties at will which could cause the entire electric fence to fail to function and cause greater problems especially to the local community when this elephant escaped from the fenced area.
He also requested that the government consider channelling a special annual fund to cover the operating costs and maintain the existing electric fence.
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