Stop Sarawak croc attacks, says Wan Junaidi
A wildlife team from the Sarawak Forest Corporation removing a 4m-long crocodile, weighing 200kg, at Kampung Bako, 30km from Kuching, in 2019. (Bernama pic)
PETALING JAYA: The authorities should catch and kill crocodiles in Sarawak periodically and systematically to reduce their numbers without causing their extinction, says minister in the prime minister’s department Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar.
He said the reptile population was still out of control, with attacks taking place not only in villages but in urban areas as well.
“With a large number of crocodiles, it is certain that as long as there are drainage systems, rivers and estuaries, they would be waiting for their prey,” Bernama reported the Santubong MP as saying.
His statement followed recent attacks on a five-year-old boy at Kampung Nyabut in Telaga Air, Kuching, last Saturday, and a 56-year-old man at Sungai Ahong in Kampung Kangka, Lundu, two days earlier.
Wan Junaidi urged the relevant government agencies to implement proactive and holistic measures to prevent such incidents from recurring.
“I want the authorities to take appropriate action to ensure the reptiles do not disrupt the lives of the people,” he said.
He expressed his sympathies to the families of the two victims.
Wan Junaidi said that when he was previously natural resources and environment minister, he had succeeded in moving Sarawak from Schedule One to Schedule Two of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) at a conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2016.
This followed concerns then over the overpopulation of crocodiles in Sarawak.
But despite being in Schedule Two now, these attacks were continuing in the state.
He said the local community should be allowed to venture into the crocodile skin and meat industry as one of the ways to control the population of the reptile.
This could be carried out with control and guidance of the authorities, he said, noting that the industry grossed billions of ringgit in profits globally.
PETALING JAYA: The authorities should catch and kill crocodiles in Sarawak periodically and systematically to reduce their numbers without causing their extinction, says minister in the prime minister’s department Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar.
He said the reptile population was still out of control, with attacks taking place not only in villages but in urban areas as well.
“With a large number of crocodiles, it is certain that as long as there are drainage systems, rivers and estuaries, they would be waiting for their prey,” Bernama reported the Santubong MP as saying.
His statement followed recent attacks on a five-year-old boy at Kampung Nyabut in Telaga Air, Kuching, last Saturday, and a 56-year-old man at Sungai Ahong in Kampung Kangka, Lundu, two days earlier.
Wan Junaidi urged the relevant government agencies to implement proactive and holistic measures to prevent such incidents from recurring.
“I want the authorities to take appropriate action to ensure the reptiles do not disrupt the lives of the people,” he said.
He expressed his sympathies to the families of the two victims.
Wan Junaidi said that when he was previously natural resources and environment minister, he had succeeded in moving Sarawak from Schedule One to Schedule Two of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) at a conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2016.
This followed concerns then over the overpopulation of crocodiles in Sarawak.
But despite being in Schedule Two now, these attacks were continuing in the state.
He said the local community should be allowed to venture into the crocodile skin and meat industry as one of the ways to control the population of the reptile.
This could be carried out with control and guidance of the authorities, he said, noting that the industry grossed billions of ringgit in profits globally.
Humans are the ones intruding into their rightful habitat.
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