Malaysia: Building viaducts for elephant crossings

Jaspal Singh New Straits Times 24 May 11;

LENGGONG: Two viaducts will be built at the Grik-Jeli road in northern Perak to allow safe passage for elephants in the Belum-Temengor forest reserve.

The structures would be constructed at places along the 123km stretch which were often used by the large mammals to roam the forest in search for food, said Deputy Natural Resources and Environment Minister Tan Sri Joseph Kurup yesterday.

The decision to build the viaducts was made by the cabinet recently following an accident early this year near Tasik Banding involving an elephant and a cement tanker.

The cement tanker hit a female elephant when it was crossing the road at Km32 around midnight on Jan 14.

The elephant was killed but the driver of the tanker was unhurt.

"We need development, especially the construction of roads from Kelantan to Butterworth. But, along the construction area, there are a lot of elephants and their movements are causing problems to road users.

"So, the cabinet has decided that viaducts would be built for the animals to cross underneath," he said during a visit to the Lenggong Archaeological Museum here yesterday.

Kurup, who was on a trip to the Belum-Temengor forest reserve since Sunday to visit the routes commonly used by elephants, said three areas of the road had been identified by his team for possible construction of viaducts.

"Of the three areas, we will build viaducts in the two most common elephant routes."

Elephants tend to travel in groups and over vast areas looking for food either at night or at dawn.

Motorists travelling along the Grik-Jeli road at night have often seen herds of elephants crossing the road, moving between the lower Belum and upper Belum forests.