When at last after three exhausting days of tranquilizers and mud he stood swaying on the back of a truck destined for the national forest, Suria leaned in close, swung her trunk around and began lightly massaging his nose. He responded by twisting his trunk tightly around hers, clinging to her like a drowning victim.
Suria is a trained elephant for the National Elephant Conservation Center, Department of Wildlife and National Parks, a government organization that relocates wild elephants causing problems in human inhabited areas. The goal is both to protect village crops and to dissuade villagers from poisoning or otherwise harming the pesky pachyderms, as happened in Indonesia last year.
Between 2000 and 2012 Malaysia saw the highest rate of deforestation in the world. As forested areas shrink there are fewer places to put elephants where they won’t come in contact with human agricultural efforts.
“This is one of the last resorts for wild elephants,” says Nasharuddin. “Maybe it’s time to look for a different solution.”
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