Elephant Memorial in Teluk Intan

Elephants are reputed to have a great memory. They are also reputed to never forgive. There have been tales where elephants have sought revenge against humans for acts of cruelty. Not long ago, in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh, a herd of some forty elephants stormed into a village and trampled a man for killing a calf earlier in the week. In Uganda, there have been many cases where wild elephants have attacked villagers and destroyed houses, which scientists believe may have been acts of revenge over poaching incidents conducted 20 to 30 years ago. Scientists suspect that the trauma of witnessing the death of family members, or being rendered orphans at a young age had caused the elephants to suffer the equivalent of post-traumatic stress disorder. The lack of maternal care and an older guardian may have created a generation of “teenage delinquent” elephants that have been creating havoc in African villages. Another story of an elephant exacting revenge upon humans comes from Malaysia. The incident took place more than a hundred years ago. At that time the Southeast Asian country was still teeming with wildlife and tropical jungle, and elephants roamed freely in what is now a large town in Hilir Perak District. In 1885, the railways were built by the British to transport tin from mines in the hinterland of the West Coast states of Peninsular Malaysia to coastal ports. The first railway line was between Port Weld and Taiping, which lies at the heart of the tin-rich Larut Valley in Perak state. A year later, in 1886, the line was expanded to connect Lumpur and Klang. In 1893, the line between Teluk Anson (now called Teluk Intan) to Tapah Road was opened. A year later, in 1894, a baby elephant was struck down by a train in Teluk Anson killing the animal.