Historical review of human-elephant conflict in Peninsular Malaysia

Human-wildlife conflict has become a major issue in wildlife conservation which has turned to be a global conservation priority. Conflict with wildlife has caused direct and indirect effects to both humans and wildlife populations. In Peninsular Malaysia, one of the major wildlife conflict issue is human-elephant conflict (HEC). HEC and habitat loss has affected the distribution of elephants in Peninsular Malaysia. HEC started to become serious in Peninsular Malaysia when mass forest conversions were carried out for large scale agriculture programs. Millions of ringgits were loss due to conflict with elephants and the problem continues to persist. Even until today, elephants are facing the threat of habitat loss which would certainly cause escalation of HEC incidents. In term of direct intervention by the wildlife authority to mitigate HEC, there are few main actions that could be taken depending on site suitability and the elephant population involved. Hence, it is important to understand the causes of HEC in order to reduce HEC incidents in Peninsular Malaysia.