MANJUNG – Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) said, if the government does not re-gazette the area of Pasir Panjang beach, turtle landing and eco-tourism activites as well as the physical structure beach will be destroyed.
SAM field researcher Meor Razak Meor Abdul Rahman said, the area was de-gazetted on Feb 2, 1989. Since then various tree planting programmes had been implemented before being threatened by an illegal sand extraction project since last November.
He said, a complaint about the illegal activity have filled by several non-governmental organisations on Nov 4.
He said, “the community in the area informed that the authorities entered the area in early December and thought actions had been taken. But, they very shocked to see movement of sand mining machinery in the area which has been fenced on Dec 28.”
“We went to the area two days ago and found that trees in the forest area had been cut down to make way for heavy vehicles to transport the extracted sand out of the area. Cut trees were piled up in addition to environmental destruction. This is very sad, “he said.
He told this to reporters yesterday at the site, about 91 kilometres from Ipoh.
Also present were villagers from the surrounding area who held a peaceful protest against the sand mining project.
Meor Razak claimed that to date, about 30 per cent of the 130 hectares area had been encroached. It was feared that this would affect the turtle landing site, the coastal ecosystems as well as animals such as the Sun Bear and their natural habitats.
He said, based on the National Physical Plan, all turtle landing sites in the Peninsula including in Pasir Panjang beach were categorised as Rank 1 ESA (environmentally sensitive area). All turtle landing sites can only be used for activities involving low-impact tourism, education and research.
Checks by Bernama in that area found felled trees, piles of wood as well as the presence of three sand dredgers in the area. The authorities had marked the area with barricade tapes.
Bernama had previously reported that the Manjung Municipal Council (MPM) had not received any application for the sand mining activity and had issued a stop-work order against the project.
Source: BERNAMA
