Malaysia: No solution in sight for human-elephant conflicts in Telupid

NORASIKIN DAINEH New Straits Times 21 Mar 18;

KOTA KINABALU: Authorities are finding it hard to find a concrete solution to escalating human-elephant conflicts in Telupid since early this year.

State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said discussions are still on going between all stateholders and experts but so permanent solutions appears to be in sight, for now.

"I must admit that this is one of the toughest issues we are handling. We hope to figure something out soon," he said when asked about a meeting between the ministry, State Wildlife department and experts recently on the matter.

"The cooperation and talks with those with elephant expertise are ongoing and it is a complicated matter,” Masidi said when met at a school related sporting event at Kota Kinabalu Sports Complex in Likas here.

NSTP highlighted the problem in Telupid, where elephants have been appearing near the town area and villages several times the last two months.

Things became serious when a herd damaged a fence and entered the disrict police station twice and wandered into Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Telupid last month.

A Wildlife department staff was also injured when he fell into a ravine while trying to escape from elephants nearby the school.