Hungry, hungry jumbos: Ling feeding sugarcane to an elephant during his working visit at the Johor Elephant Sanctuary in Kota Tinggi. — THOMAS YONG/The Star
KOTA TINGGI: As part of its long term measures to address human-elephant conflicts, Johor is planning to have 21 food banks placed along the animal’s migratory route in three districts.
“Based on a study jointly conducted by Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) and a public university, the best way to do this is to create food banks for the big mammal,” said state health and environment committee chairman Ling Tian Soon.
“When there is enough food for the elephants in the forest, there is no reason for the animal to enter plantations or villages located near forest areas.”
An elephant food bank is a dedicated feeding area meant for the beast where vegetation such as napier grass and fruits are planted along its migratory routes to avoid it from going into human areas in search of food.
Speaking to reporters yesterday during a visit to the Johor Elephant Sanctuary (JES), Ling said there were currently four food banks located in Kota Tinggi for elephants.
“Two of the locations for the food bank is located within JES here while two others are sited in private plantation areas.”
“We noticed that wild elephants have been coming to JES, eating the food that we have provided at the food bank here,” he added.
As such, he said that one of the long term measures in dealing with human-elephant conflicts, where two people have died after being attacked by elephants this year, would be to have such food banks.
“These food banks will be located along elephant routes that have been identified in three districts, which is Kluang, Mersing and Kota Tinggi.”
Ling said the presence of elephants at the food bank within JES had helped reduced human-elephant conflicts within the district.
He said that he was confident that similar results could be seen in Mersing and Kluang.
With this in mind, he said the state government, through Perhilitan, wants to engage with plantation owners and companies soon.
“We are hoping that plantation owners will work closely with us by allocating about one hectare of their plantation areas to plant napier grass, banana trees and sugarcane, which is meant for the elephants’ food bank,” he said.
Ling also said that the state government has allocated RM9mil to build electric fences along a 16km route around Panti forest reserve to prevent elephants from entering nearby villages.
He spoke of other steps taken by Perhilitan in addressing human-elephant conflicts in Johor such as installing satellite collars and translocation of these big mammals.
On JES, Ling said that construction under phase one of the project has been completed and now work was underway for the second phase.
He said that JES was currently built on a 73ha land area near Panti which is on track to open to the public in two years’ time.
“The second phase sees the construction of a pond and a pathway. JES will be open to the public in 2026 and it would be another attraction in Johor.
“Currently, there are four elephants in JES where the main purpose of having an elephant sanctuary here is to treat injured elephants before releasing them, besides allowing research to be conducted on the animal,” he said.
