Lanchang is a small town in

Temerloh District Temerloh District is a district in Pahang, Malaysia. The district consists of two areas, the Municipal Council Area (64.08%) and the outer Municipal Council Area (35.92%). Temerloh district is bordered by Maran District on the east, Bentong D ...

Pahang Pahang (; Jawi: , Pahang Hulu Malay: ''Paha'', Pahang Hilir Malay: ''Pahaeng'', Ulu Tembeling Malay: ''Pahaq)'' officially Pahang Darul Makmur with the Arabic honorific ''Darul Makmur'' (Jawi: , "The Abode of Tranquility") is a sultanate and ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. It is accessible via the

East Coast Expressway The East Coast Expressway is an interstate controlled-access highway running parallel to the northeastern coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The currently operational segment of the expressway runs between Karak, Pahang and Kuala Nerus, Terengganu ...

's Lanchang Interchange. The Kuala Gandah Elephant Conservation Centre is situated in Lanchang. This is the main attraction of this small town apart from agriculture and the many

Felda The Federal Land Development Authority (Felda; ms, Lembaga Kemajuan Tanah Persekutuan. LKTP) is a Malaysian government agency that was founded to handle the resettlement of rural poor into newly developed areas (''colonies'', ''settlements'' ...

projects of both

rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, an ...

and palm oil plantations. Other agriculture activities are thriving well today, because it has a low population density, yet still has much land available for agriculture.

Kuala Gandah Elephant Conservation Centre

The

Asian Elephant The Asian elephant (''Elephas maximus''), also known as the Asiatic elephant, is the only living species of the genus ''Elephas'' and is distributed throughout the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, from India in the west, Nepal in the no ...

, ''Elephus maximus ongkili'' is listed as an endangered species. According to the

UNEP The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on ...

there are only about 1,000 wild Asian elephants left on the Malay peninsula."The Asian (Indian) Elephant" United Nations Environment Programme (2004)
/ref> The rapid development phase in Malaysia has effects on the elephants. Unused land and forest became a much sought after commodity. As agricultural development rapidly encroached into these areas, the elephants' natural and ancestral foraging ground shrunk smaller and smaller. Consequently, some of these elephants began to forage in new farm areas and plantations. An effort by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks was the setting up of an elephant translocation unit in 1974 to track down, capture and then release these elephants into larger and safer forest reserves throughout the Peninsula.

References

Towns in Pahang Populated places in Pahang {{Pahang-geo-stub