Sarawak Built An App To Track Crocodiles, Then The Buaya Got Busy
Launched in 2024 as an early warning measure, Sarawak Croc Watch is now being put to work in earnest — as the conflict it was designed to flag becomes harder to ignore.
Sarawak Croc Watch launched in 2024, letting users report crocodile sightings and push data to authorities, but uptake was initially low.
Between 2023 and 2025, crocodiles attacked 33 people and killed 22, with nine attacks and five deaths recorded in 2025 alone.
The app places surveillance responsibility on riverside communities who cannot avoid the river, with responses often handled by local licensed hunters.
Sarawak has 25,000 crocodiles. It also has an app for that.
Sarawak Croc Watch launched quietly in September 2024 at the Belawai Festival — a crowd-sourcing tool that lets users report sightings, flag hotspots, and push data directly to the Sarawak Forestry Corporation.
Developed jointly by the state government, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Urban Development, and Sarawak Information Systems, it was, by all accounts, a sensible piece of infrastructure.
In response, authorities recently tracked and shot dead a five-metre reptile linked to attacks in Sungai Tatau.
The state is now pushing the app through regional news outlets and Sarawak Forestry Corporation’s (SFC) official Facebook page — mobilising riverside communities to report what they see, and to report it fast.
The same app that has been available for nearly two years.
The crocodile population, estimated at roughly 25,000, has nearly doubled over the past decade.
Report What You See, Live With What You Can’t Avoid
The Sarawak Forestry Corporation attributes the surge in conflict to easy food sources near human settlements, rapid riverside development, and the simple fact that rural and indigenous communities have no alternative — the river is their road, their market, and their water supply.
They cannot avoid it.
So the state’s answer is: report what you see, and we will respond, which is reasonable.
It is also, notably, an answer that puts the burden of surveillance on the communities most exposed to the danger.
The app did not change between 2024 and 2026.
The body count did.
And when the data points to a location, it is not always a government unit that shows up — the state relies heavily on private, licensed hunters drawn from local communities, operating less like a wildlife agency and more like a community action squad.
