The death of 7 pygmy elephants after they fell into a man-made mud pool in Rinukut, Tawau, near a logging camp of one Berkat Saga Sdn Bhd, should serve as another bitter lesson and action must be taken to avoid another incidents from happening again in the future.
There should be laws to punish culprits for negligence that led to death of wildlife and failure to protect wildlife.
This is because the mud pool is man-made and to leave it abandon and unprotected without any fences invites incidents waiting to happen.
We do not want to hear and see the same old rhetoric about the Sabah Forestry Department working with the Sabah Wildlife Department to conduct an in-dept investigation about the death of the elephants. Another repeat with everything sounds and feels so sickeningly familiar and similar to the time when the news broke in 2013 about the death of our 14 pygmy elephants.
The media all over the world reported the shocking news and the world was promised by the State Government to investigate the matter so that the culprits are bring to justice. But until today, 3 years have passed and another 7 elephants have died, we still do not know what and who killed the pygmy elephants?
As we mourn for our pygmy elephants, we should also be ashamed as with all the ‘top’ departments to protect the environment and wildlife as the elephants’ deaths has put a dent in the tourism industry.
We must ask ourselves that why can’t we do more to prevent this from happening? We know so little! Upon my investigation, although it was reported that these elephants died in the “Berkat Saga” area in the oil palm plantation of Rinukut Sdn Bhd, the logging contractor is actually named Bakat Saga Sdn Bhd, a prominent logging contractor in Tawau appointed by Yayasan Sabah. Yayasan Sabah. Remember that chilling silence in 2013? Feel the same chills now?
The mud pool that killed the elephants is not natural but man-made. We ponder, why was this mud pool first created? How long has the mud pool existed? Why was it dug in the first place? To hide illegal logs in the forest? To intentionally trap our pygmy elephants so that they don’t disturb the oil palm plantation? Were these elephants deliberately sent to their death using deep mud traps? Mass killing? Why did the plantation personnel not know about this sooner? Why was the mud pool not fenced up? Why was it not refilled after? Why why why why why why? There are a millions of whys that no one seems to be bothered enough to answer? We the people are saddened and angered by this news. We now demand for an answer from the responsible authorities.