Sabah’s elephants will survive but watch K’batangan, specialist says
Published on: Sunday, December 15, 2019
By: Kan Yaw Chong
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Daily Express posed that question to Dr Raman Sukumar, 64, an award-winning authority on the Asian elephants. He was in KK recently for the Asian Elephant Specialists Group meeting.
He gave us a mixed verdict. In spite of some recurring headline-making killings, the big herds in big landscapes can absorb the blows.
“I am an optimist,” he asserted.
He warned, however, to watch out for Kinabatangan: “Kinabatangan is going to be very challenging!” And that’s where most elephant watchers go.
An authority in the Asian Elephants
A Fullbright Fellow Princeton University (1999), Dr Raman Sukuma is best known for his work on the ecology of the Asian Elephant and wildlife-human conflict.
In 2001, he became the first Indian to be awarded the International Cosmos Prize Japan.
Dr Raman graduated from Madras University with a Bachelor of Science in 1977.
That same year, he set up the Asian Nature Conservation Foundation – a Trust that incorporates the Asian Elephant Research and Conservation Centre which carried out field projects in India and other Asian countries on elephants and their habitats.
He earned his PhD from the Indian Institute of Science in 1985.
Between 2004 and 2012, he chaired the Centre for Eco Sciences at the same Institute.
In spite of the killings, sufficient numbers in large landscapes can absorb it but…
Since many are negative and pessimistic about the future of Sabah’s elephants, we sought his authoritative view and it turned out to be quite a surprise, with a note of caution, however!
Daily Express: Sir, I heard you have written many books on elephants but this is the question: I wonder what is the future of elephants in Sabah?
Dr Raman: Actually if you ask me, if I look at the situation now, I think you have the best chance in the Danum, Deramakot and Ulu Segama. That’s a large enough landscape (DV Conservation Area 438sq km; Ulu Segama Malua FR 243,884ha; Deramakot 55,500ha) where you have sufficient numbers.
DE: Sufficient numbers?
Dr Raman: Yes. See, the good thing about Sabah is in spite of what you say about the oil palm plantations and all that, you still have in Deramakot, Ulu Segama Danam area, you still have more than 1,000 elephants which is significant, it is a significant number, the survival number, although the number of elephants will survive as along as the habitats are kept for them.
DE: That is your positive specialist impression a lot of people don’t see?
Dr Raman: Yes, and I think you have started in putting in some of the corridors there was a presentation by one of the oil palm plantations in the southern parts the corridor was put in. As long as you keep it the elephants will survive.
…but watch out for Kinabatangan
DE: Do you mean all’s OK?
Dr Raman: Kinabatangan is going to be very challenging because the habitat is very narrow just along the river and the elephants can only move along the river, it will be more challenging.
DE: What about Tabin Wildlife Reserve?
Dr Raman: Tabin you have still a large enough area (120,521ha) maybe 200 to 300 elephants. I don’t know the exact population but still have a good chance of survival. That’s what I would say.
‘I am an optimist’ – specialist
DE: So you maintain your optimism?
Dr Raman: Absolutely. If you ask me, I am optimistic. I am an optimist, It has not gone beyond, unless they know there is a large scale killing of elephants. If elephants are killed in large numbers then you don’t have a chance. That has happened in some Southeast Asian countries like Cambodia and Vietnam and so on. It has not happened here in Sabah. So I am optimistic that elephants will survive.
DE: You sound unusually positive?
Dr Raman: There will be challenges, there will be conflicts, there will be elephant deaths, there will be some human deaths but the level of confrontation is very low compared to countries like India. You know, 500 people are killed by wild elephants a year, you don’t have anywhere near that number. So I am optimistic, cautiously optimistic.
DE: So you see definite hope but we can do better? Anything concrete we should do to make sure its long-term future?
Dr Raman: For long term future, essentially you make sure that these large populations, whatever the landscape, those landscapes should not get further fragmented. That is the key and give basic respect to the elephants, make sure that there is no illegal killing of elephants in any large or significant scale. There maybe occasional accidental deaths and so on, I think the population can absorb that. Essentially that’s what I would say.
Big No, No: Don’t put major new highways through Tabin, Danum or wildlife reserves
DE: I see on the maps exhibited here at the meeting they are planning a lot of highways and railways.
Dr Raman: They should not fragment the habitats, that should not cause fragmentations by separating, going through areas where the populations are now separated. That should not happen. If all your existing roads you want to strengthen that’s ok but especially like Tabin Wildlife Reserve, you should not put a major highway through Tabin, you should not put a major highway through Danum, you should not do that. (Writer’s note: A revived Sukau Bridge linked by a proposed highway all the way to Tambisan in Dent Peninsula will cut through Tabin according to the draft drawings)
Author of four books
DE: We heard you have written four books?
Dr Raman: Yes, my first book was a doctorate thesis on the interaction of the elephants and people, looking the basic ecology of elephants and their interactions with people
My second book was a personalised account of my work in the field, how I went about doing my work, just a personalised account on how I observed the elephants and the challenges and so on.
My third book was a synthesis on the biology of the African and the Asian elephants, I did a comparative biology right from their evolution to their historical relationship between elephants and people and behaviour, their foraging ecology, movement patterns, human elephant interaction, conservation management, I did a big synthesis for both African and Asian elephants.
The fourth book was very different, a cultural history of elephants and human relationship in Asia, going back to ancient times, right to the Stone Age through successive points in history – the Buddhist period, then the Hindu period, then the Islamic period, the Christian period and the colonial era in Asia and the post- colonial independent Asia. So I did a historical account, with a lot of pictures, going to museums, different sites and looking at pictures of elephants and interpreting them and so on and so fourth.
‘I see hope’
DE: So elephants very important to yourself?
Dr Raman: Absolutely, very important.
DE: Why?
Dr Raman: I don’t know, we have a deep cultural link with the elephants, it is a deity in both Buddhism and Hinduism and Prophet Muhammad was born in the Year of the Elephant in 570CE. So I see hope for the elephants
DE: How important is this Asian Elephants Specialist Group meeting held in Kota Kinabalu?
Dr Raman: I think a meeting of this kind enthuses the local Government because the Sabah Government has gone out of their way to provide all those resources, they host all of us, have put us up, all this has been hosted by the Sabah Government which is a great thing. When a group of international specialists come, I think it creates an impetus for both the local Government, the Wildlife Department and all of them saying: OK, they are the experts saying this, let us try and see what we can do to follow what they say. So at least some amount of recommendations if they percolate down.
DE: Has it helped?
Dr Raman: In the past meetings we had in Burma, we have had them in different countries. These countries had taken the recommendations and they tried to use that in their management.
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