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SANDAKAN – The Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry will look into developing tourism activities based on wildlife conservation in Telupid, which could attract more tourists and bring economic returns, especially to the local community.
Its minister Datuk Jafry Ariffin said that to ensure the plan can be realised, all quarters need to work together to resolve the human-elephant conflict.
In a statement today, he said a recent briefing session on elephant conflict mitigation he attended in Telupid discussed, among others, the need to install electric fences to deal with elephant issues.
So far, a 3km long electric fence has been set up in Kg Bauto, and another 2.9km fence in Kg Gambaron.
“Due to that effort, no herds of elephants managed to cross the areas in question. However, earlier this year, we found that elephants had passed through the fenced area because irresponsible parties had stolen the solar panel units,” he said.
In this regard, Jafry requested the cooperation of all quarters to not steal anything that could cause the entire electric fence to fail to function and lead to bigger problems, especially for the local community, when elephants pass through the fenced area.
At the same time, he hoped that the state government could consider channelling a special annual fund to cover the operating and maintenance costs of the existing electric fences. – Bernama, September 17, 2022
