1/2/06 (The Star)  -  About 100 settlers of Perlop Land Scheme in Sungai Siput are putting up with losses worth millions of ringgit after wild elephants destroyed some 50ha of their young oil palm trees.

Fearing they may suffer further losses, the settlers have abandoned the idea of replanting another 200ha of the crop.

Settler Ismail Razali, 55, said three groups consisting of 10 elephants had been roaming in the plantation area about two months ago. 

The affected schemes, Perlop 1, 2, 3,4,5 and 6, are located at the fringe of a secondary forest connecting the Piah Forest Reserve, he said.

“The last time they came was three weeks ago and the jumbos damaged about 90 trees covering 50ha of Perlop 3.

“It only took the elephants one night to ruin three years of our labour,” said Ismail who suffered RM50,000 in losses during the recent encroachment by the elephants.

Attempts by the state Wildlife Department to chase away the elephants had been unsuccessful, he claimed.

Ismail claimed that the settlers had spotted a group of three elephants, including a female which gave birth, at one of the plantations in Perlop 4.

Another settler, Mohd Yusuff Abd Rahman, said that apart from affecting their livelihood, the presence of the elephants posed a danger to the villagers.

“Recently, we found a 26cm-long elephant footprint at one of the houses in Kampung Tangar near here,” he said.

Since the discovery of the footprint, he said, villagers had been setting bonfires at night to scare away the elephants from entering the village.

Lintang assemblyman Datuk Ahmad Pakeh Adam said complaints of elephant disturbances in the area had existed since the early 1980s.

He urged the state government to categorise such encroachments as natural disaster so as to enable the settlers to claim compensation.