Johor’s efforts to mitigate human-elephant conflict

YONG PENG, Johor – On TikTok, Mr Slamet Saket’s drone videos of elephants grazing on fruit trees at plantation fields in Kota Tinggi, Johor, may look like a panoramic shot straight out of a wildlife documentary.

But the drone recording is actually part of a safety measure for the Indonesian migrant plantation worker. Before he enters his 1.6ha worksite each time, he would scan the area for wild elephants.

The 37-year-old from Central Java, who has been working in plantations in Johor since 2014, told The Straits Times that incidents of human-elephant conflict at his worksite have become more regular over the past three years. 

“It’s common to see juvenile elephants resting or grazing here two to three times a week, and whole herds during harvest season,” said Mr Slamet, who takes care of rambutan and banana crops. Damage by just one elephant can cause major losses for small-farm owners, or smallholders, in Malaysia.

“There have been countless times I was chased by wild elephants when I encountered them at work, so the drone helps me find a way around them.”

Mr Slamet’s experience reflects a worrying trend in Malaysia’s southernmost state, where developments are ramping up and consequently encroach on nature. As a result, reports of human-elephant conflicts have surged from 103 cases in 2020 to 253 in 2024 – causing millions of ringgit in losses.

Among the worst-affected areas are the district of Kluang, about 100km north of Johor Bahru, and Kota Tinggi, home of the popular tourist destination Desaru.

In May, then Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said the wildlife department, Perhilitan, received 4,919 complaints regarding elephants between 2020 and 2024, involving property losses of RM39.4 million (S$12 million) in Malaysia.

Mr Nik Nazmi said a 2016 study found that elephant habitats had shrunk by 68 per cent because of agricultural expansion, settlements and infrastructure development.

When ST met Johor’s top official for health and environment, Mr Ling Tian Soon, at an elephant awareness programme in Yong Peng on Sept 26, he said Kluang is the district worst-hit by issues involving elephants in the state.

The land-locked district sits within a massive forest spine bordered by the 48.9ha Endau-Rompin National Park to the north and several recreational forests to the south, stretching all the way to the Gunung Panti forest reserve in Kota Tinggi.

lists Kluang as the district in Johor that recorded the most tree cover loss at 163,000ha between 2001 and 2024, followed by Kota Tinggi (161,000ha). Each of these areas is roughly 300 times the size of Sentosa Island in Singapore.

Among notable cases in Kluang was that of an elderly woman who was killed in August 2024 after an elephant was believed to have stomped on her.

Earlier in 2025, a video clip showing a large elephant

went viral.

Associate Professor Wong Ee Phin from the Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Nottingham Malaysia, said housing, road and agricultural developments in Kluang district have fragmented forested areas. This has forced elephants to enter human territory as they move from one forested plot to another.

“These housing areas also have sources of food for the elephants, such as rubbish dumps and small vegetable cultivation by home owners that create water ponds for them to drink from,” said Prof Wong, who has been researching elephants in Johor since 2021.

To remedy this, the state government has introduced a slew of measures. These include a large-scale elephant translocation operation launched in October. To date, 17 elephants have been relocated in 2025, up from 10 in 2024, Mr Ling said in a Facebook post on Sept 24.

Apart from translocation, Johor is also undertaking more long-term efforts to mitigate the issue.

Mr Ling recently announced that Johor will build its first wildlife crossing bridge along a federal highway that connects the sub-district of Kahang in Kluang to Mersing in the state’s eastern coastal tip.

The RM66 million project includes an overpass for vehicles at a crucial point located within the Johor portion of Malaysia’s “central forest spine”. The spine refers to a corridor of forests connecting the country’s national parks throughout the peninsula.

While workers like Mr Slamet have made peace with the giants, he noted that tensions remain high between elephants and smallholders, especially those who use firecrackers to scare them away, which only causes the animals to react more aggressively.

The practice is also ineffective as elephants would return to the same area to search for food, causing further problems for smallholders.

“I understand their frustration – for smallholders who aren’t so wealthy, having their crops eaten by elephants are big losses to them,” he said.

In response to mounting pressure by farmers in Johor to relocate the elephants, Mr Ling told ST, the state government has boosted support by bringing in more Perhilitan officers from other states to help

He said the translocation effort remains a short-term measure. Midterm measures include installing electric fences in plantation areas, while in the long run, “food banks” will be established at 21 areas from Kota Tinggi to Mersing, Kluang and the town of Labis.

Food banks are created by planting fruit crops between plantation sites and forest edges to reduce the chances of elephants entering human territory.

Environmental experts laud the move to establish food banks as a more sustainable method of human-animal conflict mitigation, but warn that elephant translocation may cause further problems down the line.

At the Yong Peng event, a Perhilitan officer, who declined to be named, said ongoing habitat loss throughout Malaysia means that relocated elephants can cause new problems in other areas.

“The truth is, it’s us (humans) who have invaded their habitat, not the other way round,” he said.

Forest researcher and managing director at Resource Stewardship Consultants Lim Teckwyn lauded the moves by the state government, calling them a “mindset shift from the past”.

“From what I understand, the food bank will maximise the amount of food available in the habitat for elephants and other animals generally, so they are no longer reliant on eating human crops,” Dr Lim said.

“But the practicality of this is what matters because if it is set up too close to the housing areas, we risk elephants entering high-density human areas.”

But mitigation measures alone may not be enough. Earlier in May, the Consumers’ Association of Penang and environmental non-profit Sahabat Alam Malaysia called for the government to prioritise protecting endangered animals and to “stop fragmenting forests in the name of development”.

The statement came after a car crash on a highway between the states of Perak and Kelantan killed an elephant calf on Mother’s Day on May 11.

“Economic development is necessary for a country like Malaysia, but it cannot be done at the expense of endangering species and species extinction,” they said in a statement.

Prof Wong, who is also the principal investigator for the Management and Ecology of Malaysian Elephants project, suggested that more efforts should be channelled to education instead.

She proposed building human-animal tolerance in the long run as it is not easy to shoo elephants away from settlements or agricultural land that were formerly their habitats.

“You’ll be surprised how fast they (elephants) can adapt to human activity. Elephants don’t purposely go out to hunt down or kill people, so what is needed more now is tolerance.”