KUALA LUMPUR – Tras assemblyman Chow Yu Hui has slammed the Pahang state government for destroying 15,000 durian trees at Batu Talam Forest Reserve and allegedly awarding 1,213ha of forest land to a state-linked company.
Chow claimed that the state government de-gazetted the land for the company to build up its “ambitious Musang King empire”.
The DAP lawmaker further accused the state government of hypocrisy, given that the latter’s excuse for cutting down the 15,000 durian trees was to “protect the forest reserve”.
“Worse still, the local and international media reported that the 1,213ha land was initially classified as the water catchment area and the habitat of the endangered species – the Malayan tigers,” he said in a statement, today.
The affected durian farmers, Chow said, did not destroy any trees at the forest reserve to plant their durian trees despite being cultivated for two to three decades.
The state government, he claimed, had previously awarded certain companies the rights to conduct logging in the area, but trees were not replanted afterwards.
“As such, the farmers eventually converted the idle land into durian farms,” he said.
Earlier today, Save Musang King Alliance (Samka) president Wilson Chang condemned the Pahang Forestry Department’s decision to destroy 15,000 durian trees as “cruel and heartless”.
The alliance claimed that the enforcement authority acted within the Batu Talam permanent forest reserve which was subject to an interim order pronounced by the Court of Appeal.
In other words, Samka contends that the Pahang Forestry Department may have circumvented a court order, prompting them to initiate judicial proceedings against the state government for contempt. – The Vibes, July 12, 2021
