KOTA KINABALU, Feb 11 — Incidents which result in elephant deaths in the state should not be recurring and should be tackled, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said.
He said he had informed the Cabinet meeting that the situation should be given due attention.
“I am sad to hear of yet more elephants found dead...I have already informed the Cabinet meeting the situation,” he told reporters after launching ‘Sabah Pay’, the state e-wallet application here today.
He was commenting on the two female Borneo elephants which were found dead yesterday, one in an oil palm plantation in Sukau, Kinabatangan last Saturday and the other in the Deramakot Forest Reserve in Sandakan yesterday.
This is the second and third discovery of elephant carcasses this year after the first one was found in Lower Kinabatangan last month, believed to have been buried by an oil palm plantation company.
Mohd Shafie said one way to tackle the situation was to enable rangers to monitor and take enforcement action.
“We do not know why the elephants died, they may have not been killed..maybe they drank water in the rivers which have been contaminated by fertiliser (from the oil palm plantations),” he said.
Mohd Shafie added that so far, he had not received a full report on the two elephants found dead recently. — Bernama
