KOTA KINABALU: Senior officials of the state Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry will discuss whether there is a need for an inquiry into the death of a ranger gored by an elephant at the Lok Kawi Wildlife Park here.
"We will have to discuss with the concerned parties (at the ministry),'' the minister Datuk Jafry Ariffin (pic) said when contacted.
He was responding to calls by activists as well as social media users urging the government to hold an inquiry into the incident.
They have also urged the state to take a look at the overall situation at the Lok Kawi Wildlife park that has been subjected to criticism over the poor care of the exhibits in the past.
Jafry, who had described the Christmas Day incident as unfortunate, said that he was currently on leave and would discuss the matter on his return to the office.
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On Dc 25, the wildlife park's head of the elephant unit Joe Fred Lansou, 49, was gored by an adult male elephant within the enclosure at about 8.30am.
Lansou was alone within the enclosure and was treating a calf elephant for an injury it sustained.
The adult elephant, Kejora@Joe, that killed its handler was the sole survivor of a deadly poisoning that left a herd of 14 Borneo pygmy elephants dead nine years ago. It was a calf and was cared for at the Lok Kawi Wildlife Park.
Local social and environmental activist Jefferi Chang called on the government to conduct a full inquiry into what triggered a Borneo Pygmy elephant to gore its handler to death on Christmas Day at the Lok Kawi Wildlife Park near here.
He said the inquiry was needed to clear the air on the fatal incident to see if the management had the safeguards in place for its personnel to handle wild animals.
Netizens also raised the issue of the well-being of the exhibits at the wildlife park, which has been subjected to public scrutiny over the years.
Ho Ja Lit, an architect whose company was involved in the designing of the 55ha wildlife park, felt that it was not right to blame the elephant and steps should have been taken to take the calf out for treatment.
"It was not right at all to attend to a sick calf in front of an adult elephant because they might mistake the handler as trying to hurt the calf, especially if it was making distress calls during treatment.
"We should not blame the jumbo for stepping in to protect the calf," said Ho, who said that while designing wildlife they had carried out research for proper designs for the facility as the government did not engage any specialists for the project.
On Wednesday (Dec 28), Sabah Wildlife Department director Augustine Tuuga said that there were a total of 26 elephants in captivity at Lok Kawi park, Sepilok in Sandakan and Borneo Elephant Sanctuary (BES) in Kinabatangan.
He said in Lok Kawi Wildlife Park, there were only six staff members to handle 16 elephants that could not be sent back to the wild as they would not survive after years in captivity.
He said they were suggesting to the government to consider sending them to overseas zoos that were prepared to accept some of them.
This is the first time a wildlife ranger has been killed in an elephant attack in the department's 34-year history. Some have been injured during operations to capture elephants in the wild.
