Time To Rethink Wildlife Crossings On Our Highways

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 Telecommunications firms, wildlife agencies, highway authorities, state governments and NGOs must unite to mitigate human-wildlife conflicts on highways.
The East-West Highway is well known for elephant crossings, turning these sightings into informal tourist attractions.
I am often asked where these crossings take place and the typical times when one can see these wonderfully oversized mammals traversing the road. Well, they often take place in the evenings.
Sadly, this recent Mother’s Day brought tragic news: a mother elephant lost her calf in a road accident.
When the 215-km East-West Highway was constructed in the 1970s, tunnels were specifically built to facilitate wildlife crossings. According to an engineer who worked on the project, government policy at the time discouraged publicising these tunnels to avoid tipping off poachers.
The highway’s construction also faced security challenges at the time due to the ongoing communist insurgency, which led to attacks on the project.
Then, for years after the highway was commissioned, public access was restricted to daylight hours, and a nightly curfew was enforced from 5pm to 6am.
Today, with the curfew lifted and an increasing number of vehicles on the road, human-wildlife conflict has intensified. Elephants, much like human jaywalkers, prefer direct routes across roads rather than detouring through tunnels that may not align with their natural paths or accommodate their size.
Given this growing issue, it may be time for a collaborative effort involving telecommunications companies, the wildlife department, the Malaysian Highway Authority, the state governments of Perak and Kelantan, and wildlife NGOs.
Their shared objective should be to mitigate human-elephant conflicts across the Bintang and Titiwangsa Ranges—Peninsular Malaysia’s ecological backbone.
The rising number of roadkill incidents also make it necessary for current wildlife crossings to be redesigned to ensure that they are more effective.
A potential solution, inspired by conservation efforts in Sabah, is to establish food corridors along elephant migration routes.
In Sabah, oil palm settlers have faced conflicts with pygmy elephants, leading to unfortunate killings. Planting food crops along elephant corridors can arrest this problem by reducing the elephants’ need to forage in farmlands.
Integrating this approach with improved tunnel crossings might offer a more comprehensive solution.
Meanwhile, many of the existing road signs are also worn out and largely ignored by regular highway users.
Signages should be modernised and can be made more effective by incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) and internet-enabled monitoring systems. Sensors and cameras powered by AI could be used to detect approaching elephants and trigger warning signals for drivers and tourists.
This would be a practical adaptation of the camera traps used by wildlife researchers and could at least help slow vehicle speeds in critical areas.
For locations with patchy internet coverage, agencies might consider deploying low-cost, solar-powered streetlights. To maximize efficiency, lighting should be concentrated in areas with frequent elephant crossings and near designated wildlife signage.
By implementing these measures, we can foster a more harmonious coexistence between humans and wildlife—ultimately benefiting both communities and Malaysia’s elephant population.
Yamin Vong enjoys the personal mobility of cars and bikes and 4×4 trucks. He can be contacted on Facebook at yamin.com.my. - FMT
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.

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