Guest guest Posted May 21, 2002 Report Share Posted May 21, 2002 ***************************Advertisement*************************** eCentral - Your Entertainment Guide http://www.star-ecentral.com ***************************************************************** This message was forwarded to you by yitzeling. Comment from sender: living on the wild side This article is from thestar.com.my URL: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2002/5/21/features/tiger1 & sec=fe\ atures ________________________ Tuesday, May 21, 2002 Living on the wild side Stories and pictures by MENG YEW CHOONG AT FIRST glance, there is nothing unusual about the Felda Jerangau Barat (FJB) scheme in central Terengganu. A pretty good road leads visitors to the 2,400ha oil palm estate that straddles Hulu Terengganu and Dungun. Set up in 1972, FJB was one of the many land development schemes initiated by the Federal Government through the Federal Land Development Agency (Felda). As its name suggests, Felda is tasked with opening up land for plantations to uplift the living standard of the poor and landless in the country. However, Jerangau is no ordinary Felda scheme: it is frequently visited by tigers (Panthera tigris) from the nearby forest reserve which is rich in wildlife. In fact, Jerangau can easily qualify as the Felda scheme with the most tiger sightings in the country. Over the years there have been numerous reports of livestock being killed by tigers that wandered into human settlements. The first recorded case was as early as the 1950s. FJB is home to 363 families, some of whom rear cattle to supplement their income. The cattle are left to roam free. Livestock that is left wandering around after dusk is easy prey for tigers due to the settlement’s proximity to the forest reserve. FJB is surrounded by the Jerangau Forest Reserve which was logged in the early 1970s; the reserve is currently undergoing another round of logging. More significantly, FJB is less than 30km away from the National Park which is a sanctuary for carnivores, both large and small. Studies by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Malaysia show that a few tigers do live in Jerangau, while a good number pass through the area from time to time. Farmers often do not report cattle lost to tigers. There is little incentive to do so since they do not receive any compensation. But the villagers do not take kindly to such losses. An adult animal can easily fetch RM1,000 or more. The dilemma of the farmers is compounded by the fact that tigers are protected animals and cannot be harmed in any way unless they attack humans. “More than 500 heads of cattle have been lost to tigers since 1987,” says Mat Zin Mat Uyob, 42, chief of the Jerangau scheme settlers. “I have sold all my cattle as I can no longer bear the losses.” Given that the survival of the tigers is at stake should the villagers take matters into their own hands, the United Kingdom WWF and WWF Japan provided initial funding to establish the Tiger-Human Conflict Resolution Project in FJB in 1999. This study aims to reduce the tiger-human conflict in Jerangau and develop a model plan for other conflict areas in the peninsula. The chief strategy employed at FJB is to reduce the chances of cattle coming into contact with tigers. This is a big challenge for WWF Malaysia’s scientific officer Mohd Azlan Jayasila who is studying tigers in Jerangau, as it involves changing the age-old practice of allowing cattle to roam freely in the settlement. The farmers are advised to ensure that their cattle graze in safe areas away from the forest fringes. They have to make sure too that their livestock are kept in the pen between 5.30pm and 8am as tigers are most active during dusk and dawn. Initially Azlan met with resentment from the villagers who were used to their kampung way of rearing livestock. But he is glad that there has been a change of attitude among the settlers and they are more cooperative now. Hamzah Abdul Ghani, 36, welcomes the change in the method of cattle-rearing. “I cannot accept the free-ranging method that some farmers use around here. For one, it makes it difficult to identify any disease that the cows bring home. Secondly, it is difficult to identify to whom certain cattle belongs to,’’ says Hamzah who has a joint-venture with 11 other settlers in raising cattle for income. Hamzah and his friends take turns to herd their livestock back to safety every evening. This has proven effective as they have not lost a single cow to tigers since. The paddocks have to be made more secure too. Presently, a large number of paddocks in FJB are unable to keep away prowling tigers. “All that the tiger need to do is to circle the paddock, and the frightened cattle will break through the flimsy fencing and present themselves as easy prey to the hungry tigers,’’ says Azlan. Funding is the main obstacle to making the paddocks in Jerangau more secure. Presently there are 12 paddocks, and it costs RM5,000 to make each paddock “tiger-proof”. This is a sum quite beyond the farmers. There is disturbing evidence of illegal hunting in Jerangau too, though it has yet to be proven if someone had actually shot any tiger in the area. A survey by Azlan last year uncovered an abandoned camp in the forest believed to be set up by the orang asli. It looked as if they were brought in by outsiders to harvest forest products and wildlife, as a tortoise shell and snake skin were found around the camp. Still cameras mounted in the forest reserve to photograph tigers and other wildlife show that hunting activities do occur around FJB. However, the level of game hunting could not be determined. Unofficial reports claim that all the sambar deer have been hunted out of existence in the area. This is supported by the fact that no sambar deer was photographed by the cameras. Tigers generally go after large game animals such as sambar deer. Other available prey in the Jerangau vicinity are wild boars (Sus scrofa) and barking deer (Muntiacus muntjac). Casual hunting of small game like birds and squirrels can inadvertently scare away wildlife that the tiger preys on. In 2001 alone, unofficial reports say that at least three tigers were killed between Jerangau and Bukit Diman. These accidents occur as the tigers were crossing the road, presumably to get out of the encroached isolated patch of forest north of Jerangau. One of the accidents was confirmed by a driver who lodged a report at the Jerangau police station so that he could claim for damages. In the other cases, it was believed that the carcass was taken away by the driver or passers-by and the organs extracted for medicinal purposes. The Jerangau tiger study, when completed this year, can be used as a model project for any area with similar tiger-human conflict. There are an estimated 500 to 600 tigers in Peninsular Malaysia. However, resolving tiger-human conflicts through appropriate management methods and development approaches is not just dependent on WWF Malaysia or the settlers alone. The successful implementation of the project also hinges on the cooperation extended by Felda, the various state agencies involving wildlife, forestry, agriculture, the district office, the State Economic Planning Unit, and Kumpulan Kayu Kayan Terengganu Sdn Bhd which holds logging concessions in the state. Inter-agency cooperation is particularly important given that Terengganu faces an enormous temptation to log the remaining forests and convert the land to plantations. Forest development without proper planning or consideration for adjacent areas can have undesirable effects on tiger-human conflicts. “When a forest is being actively logged, large mammals such as tigers will be displaced,” says Azlan. “They may be forced to move elsewhere temporarily or permanently, depending on the extent of damage caused.’’ He adds that each adult male tiger needs a space ranging from 40sq km to 100sq km, depending on prey density. Meanwhile, the quick-learning tigers which initally picked on livestock grazing along jungle fringes have grown bolder. Far from fearing humans, the tigers seem to have adapted quite well to human presence. On a few occasions, they have actually hunted for prey very close to villages, although no one has been attacked so far. Currently, the funding provided by WWF UK is fast drying up. “We requested for RM200,000 last year, but got less than half the amount. We are now running on a deficit of RM120,000,” says Azlan. “We are appealing to organisations, the private sector and the public to raise funds to help the farmers with their cattle pen project. We have not received any responses so far. This has increased anxiety among the farmers.’’ Data showed that between 1987 and 1997, 726 heads of cattle were reported killed in Terengganu. It must be remembered that not all deaths are reported. Between 1997 and 1998 in FJB alone, financial losses suffered by the villagers as a result of tiger attacks amounted to RM200,000. Not surprisingly, at Jerangau tigers are viewed with a mixture of fear and anger. “We’d kill them if we could, but they are protected animals,’’ says a cattle farmer. A few villagers have been suspected of taking matters into their own hands by poisoning the tigers. So far at least two tigers in the Jerangau area have been found dead under mysterious circumstances. Still, there is a glimmer of hope that things may not degenerate any further. The discernible shift in attitude among a significant section of the settlers towards tigers is cause for cheer. “When I first came to FJB, tigers were much hated,” says Azlan. “Now I hear people say: ‘Is that our tiger in the picture?’ or ‘How many tigers do we have?’ or ‘We understand the tiger is hungry, but as long as it finishes up what it has killed (instead of leaving a stinking, half-eaten carcass behind), it’s not that bad’.’’ In a settlement where money is earned the hard way, such generosity towards the beast that feeds off their livestock is laudable indeed. ________________________ Your one-stop information portal: The Star Online http://thestar.com.my http://biz.thestar.com.my http://classifieds.thestar.com.my http://cards.thestar.com.my http://search.thestar.com.my http://star-motoring.com http://star-space.com http://star-jobs.com http://star-ecentral.com http://star-techcentral.com 1995-2002 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd. All rights reserved. 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