On 10 Oct 95, Mek Penawar became the first Asian elephant ever to be equipped with a satellite transmitter . Mek Penawar had been trans-located after raiding a starfruit plantation in southern Malaysia. We used the transmitter to monitor her post-release movements . On 17 Aug 98, Mek Boh , became the project's third successfully tracked elephant. She had been trans-located together with her teenaged son when her forest in central Malaysia had become so small that the resident herd was forced to constantly feed in the neighboring plantations.
Elephants can cause great damage to plantations.
To reduce that damage, DWNP has developed an elephant trans-location program . Once elephants are identified as repeated crop raiders, they are moved from agricultural to protected areas. Mek Penawar, for example, was captured in a fruit tree plantation in Peninsular Malaysia's most southern state of Johore. She was trucked about 400 km north and released in Taman Negara National Park. Mek Penawar is one of over 400 elephants captured and trans-located by DWNP since 1974.