KOTA KINABALU, Sept 30 — A bounty of RM20,000 has been placed for information leading to the capture of the perpetrators behind the killing of a juvenile elephant with over 70 gunshot wounds here.
Sabah Wildlife Department director Augustine Tuuga said the bounty was increased from RM10,000 to RM20,000 when an anonymous donor came forward after reading about the brutal killing.
“A sympathetic donor has increased the reward to RM20,000,” he said.
He said the department was investigating the case which had come to their attention last September 26.
The day before, a group of anglers had found the body of a juvenile elephant, at the time believed to be female, floating in the river in Sungai Udin, Kalabakan, with a rope tied around its neck.
When officers from the Wildlife Department went to look for the elephant a day later, it was found without the rope and in a sitting position on the river bank.
A post mortem conducted revealed that the elephant was a juvenile male aged between 20 and 30 years old with its body was riddled with 73 gunshot wounds fired at close range all over its body and its tusks were sawn off.
The fatal shot was to its skull which pierced through its brain. Authorities believed that this was the work of poachers who were possibly using automatic guns.
According to interviews with the local community, no gunshots were heard at all, putting investigations at a standstill.
The case is being investigated under Section 25/28 of the Wildlife Enactment 1997 which carries mandatory jail time if convicted.
Police have also been roped in to help with investigations, in what is dubbed as “Ops Khazanah”.
Augustine said that there has been more than 100 elephant deaths reported in the last nine years, from a variety of causes including being shot to death, poisoned or deathly illnesses.
