SINGAPORE: Malaysian security and wildlife officers have captured a male elephant they believe is the leader of a herd that has attacked farmlands in a northern Malaysian state, the country's wildlife department said on Sunday. The elephant, weighing at least 4,000 kilograms, was captured Thursday in a village of Kelantan state, about 335 kilometers north of Kuala Lumpur. It was believed to have led a herd of 9 elephants that strayed from a nearby forest reserve and destroyed farm crops during recent months. Wildlife officers were seeking to capture the remaining elephants and return them to the jungle. Eleaid, a British charity group working for the conservation and welfare of Asian elephants, estimated that there are nearly 1,500 wild elephants in the forests of mainland Malaysia. Activists in Kuala Lumpur told Bikyamasr.com that the capture of the elephant is “wrong” and that authorities and farmers “should re-examine how animals are dealt with when we, as humans, take their land because we want to do more with it. It isn't the animals fault when their territory is being destroyed.” BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/V9L8u Tags: Capture, Elephant, Farms, Malaysia Section: Animals, East Asia, Going Green, Latest News
