Where have all the tigers gone? Gone, gone (almost) every one

 

There’s one less Malayan tiger in the country.

What’s interesting is that this tiger was not shot dead by hunters or poachers but by officers of the Kelantan Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan). That’s right.

Orang Asli Anek Along, 59, was mauled to death by a tiger at Kampung Sau, Gua Musang, Kelantan on Jan 7. Police said when Anek, who had gone to the back of his house to urinate, did not return, his daughter went in search and found bloodstains.

She raised the alarm and villagers joined her in searching for Anek, according to media reports. Upon finding a tiger near Anek’s body, some of them threw spears at it and the animal fled.

Kelantan Perhilitan director Mohamad Hafid Rohani was reported in the media as saying that his men subsequently shot and killed the male tiger, which weighed about 120kg, because it ran towards them.

The decision to open fire, he said officiously, was in line with Section 52 of the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 as the animal was a danger to human life.

I don’t want to pass judgment on the decision of the Perhilitan officers who killed the tiger as I don’t know how bad the situation was when they confronted the tiger or how pressured they were to resolve the matter.

However, there has been criticism of the way they handled the tiger, chiefly from the Orang Asli themselves. The Jaringan Kampung Orang Asli Kelantan submitted a memorandum to the prime minister on Jan 12 urging him to, among other things, check deforestation and encroachment into the natural habitats of wild animals.

Pos Ber village chief Nasir Dollah was quoted as saying that rather than killing the tiger, Perhilitan officers should have consulted the local community to seek a better solution.

He said the officers initially hurled firecrackers towards the tiger but that this was not the best option available. He discounted the theory put forward by the authorities that the tiger could have become aggressive because it had been infected with rabies or canine distemper virus which causes confusion and a change in behavior.

However, Nasir didn’t mince his words when he said the real reason the tiger had come into the village was because of encroachment into its natural habitat.

Replying in the media, Perhilitan’s Hafid asked how else were they to scare off the animal if not by letting off firecrackers or firing warning shots.

He said his men had no option but to open fire when the tiger advanced. Why not fire tranquilisers? Hafid, noting the tranquiliser would have taken time to be effective, said it was too late to use them as the tiger was already heading towards his men.

Hafid’s explanation won’t stop people from seeing it as another example of the abject failure of a protector to protect – just as in areas such as corruption, crime and politics. It appears to be a national disease.

Perhilitan deputy director-general (conservation) Fakhrul Hatta Musa said in an interview with RTM1 on Jan 14 that if no drastic action was taken, the Malayan tiger (Panthera tigris jacksoni) would be extinct in five to 10 years.

He said there were only about 150 tigers left in the country.

Perhaps this is a good time for Perhilitan to look into new ways of dealing with tigers and hold talks with the Orang Asli who live nearest to wild animals and would better know their ways, and to fully consult animal experts and conservationists – if they haven’t yet.

And for the government to put in place better checks against encroachment into the natural habitats of wild animals such as the tiger. This would be a good time to prevent indiscriminate logging and to review policies that allow the clearing of forests for planting oil palms, or mining or building townships.

The Kelantan government was quick to deny that tigers were roaming into villagers because of logging activities in the state, in reply to a charge by some Orang Asli that such human-wildlife conflicts were a result of the Kelantan government’s approval of large areas of forests for logging and other activities.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar admitted in Parliament on Nov 14 last year that the problem rested with human beings, not the tiger. Saying humans had gone ahead to deforest the tiger’s natural habitat, he added: “The dwindling jungle habitat forces the animal to come face-to-face with the human population as they have a huge roaming area.”

Acknowledging the situation was bad, Wan Junaidi said the Cabinet had on June 16 agreed to a 10-year plan from 2021 to 2030 to arrest the declining tiger population.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources estimated that the tiger population was roughly 3,000 in the 1950s but had declined to 500 between 1990 and 2003 and to between 250 and 340 in 2013. This continuing population decline has resulted in the Malayan tiger being classified as a critically endangered species.

The tiger habitat, it said, had declined from the original extent of 98,818 km2 prior to the 1970s to 75,079 km2 in 1980 to 55,387 km2 in 2000.

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, in saying the government was serious about saving the Malayan tiger, acknowledged that the reason for the dwindling Malayan tiger population was a loss of habitat and food sources largely resulting from land use changes, hunting and illegal trade in animals. He said canine distemper virus was another reason.

The establishment of the National Tiger Conservation Task Force (MyTTF), whose first meeting he chaired on Jan 10, is a welcome move. However, getting menteris besar or state executive councillors responsible for land matters to sit on the MyTTF is not enough; they must be made to sign a pledge to cut down on deforestation and work on reforestation.

Unless state governments cooperate, animal protection and ecosystem conservation efforts will fail because land matters fall under their purview. If they put money above everything, all will be lost.

I’m not sure if representatives of the Orang Asli community and conservation groups also sit on the MyTTF; if they don’t, this error should be immediately rectified.

Ismail said the government was serious about the 10-year Strategic Actions for Conservation of Harimau Malaya plan. That’s good.

But I wonder if it will go the way of the 2009 National Tiger Conservation Action Plan which had the goal of doubling the tiger population from about 500 then to 1,000 by the year 2020,

The latest plans call for, among other things, joint patrols of forests by Perhilitan, police, army and the Orang Asli community. This is definitely a good move as the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources says parts equivalent to at least 94 tigers were seized over 33 seizures between 2000 and 2013.

“The threat to tigers from illegal commercial trade was further illustrated in Malaysia when in 2012, tiger parts representing at least 22 tigers were seized in the state of Kedah,” it added.

Malaysia’s new tiger conservation plan envisages strengthening and maintaining animal habitats through “sustainable land use management” and stopping any encroachment and poaching activities.

Where have we heard this before?

It also proposed to increase forest cover in the peninsula from 43.41% to 50% by 2040.

But what about the over-development and logging activities that are continuing now?
Another proposal is to carry out a “Save the Malayan Tiger” campaign to increase awareness and involvement of “strategic partners”.

I hope the awareness project, and money, will be given to a respected animal conservation organisation so that we get bang for the buck. Malaysians would hate to see the project, and the money, being given to, say, someone’s wife’s brother’s son’s company.

May I suggest that state governments, logging and plantation companies, and that section of people who may be involved in the tiger parts trade be made the principal targets of this campaign?

Let’s hope when 2030 comes, Malaysia has something positive to report about the Malayan tiger population. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.