Felda moves out 10 elephants from Sabah plantation

Wildlife rescue personnel trying to get an elephant into a cage mounted on a lorry under a Felda-sponsored translocation exercise.

TAWAU: Ten elephants roaming around a plantation run by the Federal Land Development Authority near Lahad Datu would be translocated off the agency’s plantation grounds.

Damaged cash crops caused by the elephants had caused losses to Felda of around RM430,000 in the first six months of this year, the agency said today.

“The destruction by the elephants have reached critical levels and also posed a risk to the safety of Felda assets at the Gugusan Umas plantation,” Felda said.

Sabah Wildlife rescue leader Dr Sen shoots the wild elephant with a dart from a distance.

It said the translocation exercise comes in view of Felda’s long-term solution to end the damage caused by wildlife. It cost between RM150,000 and RM200,000 to transfer the elephants out of the plantation ground.

The elephants were caught and transferred to the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve, some 100km away.

A caged elephant ready to undergo translocation into the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve, some 100km from a Felda oil palm plantation near Lahad Datu.

Felda said RM200,000 more had been spent to fix the electrical fence and a drainage system surrounding the Felda area and the FGV Umas Complex to stop elephants from entering into their plantation.

According to Wildlife Assistant Director Sen Nathan, his team had so far successfully translocated six elephants to date. “There would probably be more,” he said.

A caged elephant being hoisted by an excavator on top of a lorry in a translocation exercise at a Felda plantation in eastern Sabah’s Lahad Datu district.

Felda’s head of planning unit Izham Mustaffa said all these were done to protect the oil palm trees from the threat of the elephants and also to stop the wild elephants from being injured or killed.

There had been at least four elephant deaths recorded in the Sabah east coast district of Lahad Datu between 2019 and early 2020, while at least one case involving a plantation worker hiding the tusks of the endangered animal. - FMT