Elephant moved to Tasik Kenyir

New Straits Times 24 Nov 09;

JERANTUT: Residents of two Felda schemes and a village can now live in peace following the capture of a bull elephant which had been damaging their crops of late.

The 15-year-old animal was relocated to Tasik Kenyir yesterday in an operation using two trained elephants.

Twenty staff from the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) were involved in the operation to bring the two-tonne animal from the oil palm plantation in Felda Kota Gelanggi 2 to a lorry.

It took them three hours to guide the elephant on to the lorry.

Perhilitan's Kuala Gandah Elephant Unit head Nasaruddin Othman said in the past three months, the elephant had been damaging oil palm and banana trees in Felda Kota Gelanggi Dua, Felda Tekam Utara and Kampung Perak here.

He said the lone animal could have been separated from its herd.

"We had difficulties bringing out the animal as the oil palm plantation was muddy due to heavy rain in the past few days."

The elephant was caught on Saturday after a Perhilitan team tracked it for several days.

Also present during the relocation process were Pulau Tawar assemblyman Datuk Dr Ahmad Shukri Ismail and state Perhilitan director Khairiah Mohd Shariff.

Khairiah said Perhilitan would continue to monitor the movement of the elephant herds in the area to ensure that they did not pose any threat to the villagers.

Khairiah, however, said an animal would only be captured if the threat was serious or if the animal refused to leave areas that were too close to human settlements.

She said various factors had to be taken into consideration before an elephant could be relocated as each process could cost up to RM45,000.