Five animal species will be extinct in 10 years' time if nothing is done, says Perhilitan DG

SHAH ALAM - Shrinking habitats and poaching activities has left five protected wildlife species threatened with extinction.

The Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) director-general Datuk Abdul Kadir Abu Hashim said the five species are the Malayan Tiger or striped tiger, elephants, wildebeests, tapirs and sambar deer.

According to him, the most endangered animal that is near extinction now is the Malayan tiger where only 150 are detected to live in the Malaysian wilderness.

“If mammals such as tigers, elephants and tapirs are not saved now, in 10 years' time we can only see these species at the zoo," he said in an exclusive interview with Sinar Daily recently.

The main cause of this extinction is the shrinking of habitats that eventually leads to animals venturing out of their habitat and risk being hunted.

Another contributing factor is that these animals, especially the Malayan Tiger, fetch a very high price in the black market both local and abroad.

"Usually the limbs of these animals are used as food for exotic dishes and traditional medicine.

"If it's a goat, it can be used as an oil for healing fractures and so on. In fact, there are also other parts of the animals that are made as tools for religious rituals,” he said.

To overcome this, Abdul Kadir explained his department has carried out various enforcement operations including Ops Jerat, Ops Perniagaan, Ops Penyeludupan, Ops Khas, Ops Siber, Ops Sekatan Jalan Raya and Operasi Bersepadu Khazanah (OBK).

Taking OBK as an example, in 2020 the programme was further strengthened with the implementation Biodiversity Protection and Patrolling programme (BP3) where armed forces and police veterans along with Orang Asli are appointed as wildlife rangers to assist in carrying out border control, patrol and enforcement operations in the Permanent Forest Reserve throughout peninsular Malaysia.

“Perhilitan also through its dog tracking unit (K9) has also intensified joint operations with the Royal Malaysian Customs Department, especially at airports, national border gates and ports.

"A total of 25 operations involving the K9 unit has been successfully conducted until November 2021, " he said.

Abdul Kadir explained OBK operations carried out from September 2019 to February 2022, a total of 375 offenders has been arrested consisting of 100 foreigners and 275 locals.

“Out of that number, 35 were illegal hunters,'' he said.