Malaysia: Hunt on for rampaging herd of elephants

The Star 23 Jan 12;

KUALA TERENGGANU: The hunt for rampaging elephants is on.

The Terengganu Wildlife and National Parks department has deployed a team of six officers to capture wild elephants which have destroyed oil plam trees near Kampung Air Putih in Kemaman.

“We believe a group of wild elephants might have wandered into the village,” director Yusoff Shariff told The Star yesterday.

“Initial investigations revealed that the elephants might have rampaged through the plantation late at night.”

Yusoff said the animals would be relocated to the Ketiar Elephant Sanctuary in Hulu Terengganu once they were captured.

“So far the elephants have not injured any villager but I advice people to be vigilant,” he said.

The Star reported that rampaging elephants destroyed more than 50 oil palm trees in a villager Maizanah Abdullah's 2.8ha plantation.

The elephants have been using the village as a route to a nearby jungle.

The last “attack” at the plantation occurred some two years ago, where some 200 trees were destroyed.

Elephant problems have been a norm for the state and the department has conducted several successful operations to relocate them.

Jumbo woes for estate owner
The Star 22 Jan 12;

KEMAMAN: An oil palm estate owner has a problem the size of many elephants.

Rampaging elephants have des-troyed more than 50 oil palm trees in Maizanah Abdullah's 2.8ha plantation.

“Besides destroying the trees, the elephants also chewed on the fruits and leaves of the bigger oil palm trees.

“I believe the elephants came at night because we found remnants of the trees the following morning,” said the 55-year-old owner.

She added that the elephants would destroy about 10 trees on a single night and to date, the number had climbed to over 50 trees.

“The last attack occurred some two years ago, when I lost around 200 trees and suffered thousands of ringgit in losses.

“I hope the attack this time around will not reach such devastation,” she said.

Maizanah claimed that the elephants had been using the oil palm plantation as a route to get to a nearby jungle.

She hoped the state Wildlife and National Parks Department would act as soon as possible.

“I also fear the elephants might injure some unlucky individual,” she said.