Roaming elephants scare Merotai villagers

Adukifli and Baharun

TAWAU: A few elephants roaming around Kg Pisang, Merotai in the past few days during the Hari Raya Aidifitri have raised safety concern among villagers.

One of the villagers met yesterday, Adukifli Steven, 43, said there were a few elephants found around the village which he believed were from other areas.

He said such incident rarely happened and would happen only annually, however in these past few days and during the ‘Eid’ season, the villagers were surprised that there were elephants passing by in front of a few houses.

Adukifli said these elephants were never harmed by the villagers as they thought that these elephants were just foraging for food at an oil palm area near a lake.

He said though the elephants never damaged any of the houses in the village or harmed anyone, the villagers felt uncomfortable due to the elephants’ frequent presence in their village.

Another villager, Baharun Bin Hindrasaya, 68, who guided a few reporters to go the place where the elephants were said to be around after he saw the elephants right in front of his eyes.

Previously, he said he just heard rumours from the villagers on the presence of elephants.
He advised the villagers to be aware of the elephants for their own safety.

They also took initiatives to drive out the elephants by throwing firecrackers and contacted the Wildlife Department, hoping that the elephants could be driven out from the area as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, the Wildlife Department here said action on the complaint about elephants at Kg Jagung had been taken and that its personnel had carried out elephant tracking, control and eviction of elephant out of the area.

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