Perhilitan captures five female elephants roaming around Kampung Kuala Tiga

TANAH MERAH, Jan 27 -- The Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) managed to capture a herd of five female elephants in Kampung Kuala Tiga, here, yesterday.

Kelantan Perhilitan director, Ady Ermanty Haniff Mohamed Hanif said the elephants were caught around 4.30 pm using shots of tranquilliser by a five-member team from Jeli district that was monitoring the villagers’ rubber smallholdings. The animals have been roaming around the area since November last year.

He said the department responded to complaints from villagers about a herd of elephants roaming around the village and had encroached on their rubber smallholdings.

"All the wild elephants are female and are part of a herd located in the Sokor Taku Forest Reserve, near the village.

 "The elephants are believed to have come out of the forest reserve in search of food at the village,” he said in a statement today.

He added that the capture of the elephants brought relief to the villagers in Kampung Kuala Tiga, Kampung Air Kerla, Kampung Bukit Capong and Kampung Air Resom and the surrounding areas.

"In addition, it will avert continuous losses suffered by villagers due to the destruction of their crops by elephants,” he said.

Ady Ermanty said the elephant transfer operation would be at the earliest opportunity with the help of the Kuala Gandah National Elephant Conservation Centre, Lanchang, Pahang and the location for the release of the elephants would be Taman Negara.

-- BERNAMA