KUALA LUMPUR – The Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) has urged the Perak government to scrutinise approval permits to quarry Zone C of Gunung Kanthan.
The area, which is located within one of the sites under the Kinta Valley National Geopark, faces threats to its natural ecosystem due to limestone quarrying activities in the area.
CAP president Mohideen Abdul Kader says Gunung Kanthan is a 400 million-year-old site – the largest and most extensive peak remaining of the Kanthan limestone karst complex – and is a natural heritage site and a non-renewable asset to the country.
He says the area offers potential for archaeological and paleontological treasures, as many archaeological sites in Peninsular Malaysia are associated with limestone caves.
“In 2005, the prehistory unit of the Department of Museums and Antiquities found a pottery fragment, probably from the Neolithic age, in one of the caves.
“How can the government give in to commercial greed that will destroy a chapter of prehistory that belongs to every Malaysian?” he said in a statement today.
Neolithic paintings estimated to be between 2,000 and 5,000 years old were also discovered in 1959 at the Gunung Panjang limestone hill in Tambun in the Ipoh outskirts.
“What would have happened if a permit had been given to a quarry company then?” he asked.
Mohideen added that in 2019, vertebrate paleontologist Lim Tze Tshen had found orang utan fossils in Kanthan Cave and Jelapang, and has discovered many mammal fossils including wild cattle, wild boar, deer, porcupine, and hippopotamus in the caves in Perak.
The Sakyamuni Caves Monastery, a century-old Buddhist temple located along the foothills of Gunung Kanthan, is also in jeopardy as it faces eviction.
The Vibes had previously reported that extensive quarrying in Gunung Kanthan is threatening the endangered wildlife and plants in the area.
Endemic flora such as meiogye kanthanensis, gymnostachyum kanthanensi, and vatica kanthanensi, and fauna such as the prehistoric trapdoor spider, liphistius kanthanensi and a lizard called cytrodactylus guakanthanensis are at risk of being wiped out if quarrying activities expand and destroys Gunung Kanthan.
“Gunung Kanthan was also identified as ‘the only remnant of limestone forests in Perak’ with a population of birds, reptiles, frogs, and the endangered serow, known to locals as kambing gurun,” he said.
With a grant provided by quarry operator Lafarge Malaysia, scientists from University Malaysia Sabah and Rimba, a non-governmental organisation, found 122 species of land snails at 12 limestone hills in the state.
Thirty-four of these new species were described as unique to the hills, with 30 others potentially new to science.
Mohideen says there have been suggestions for limestone to be quarried from idle mining land, or to conduct subsurface quarrying rather than blasting the karst, which would obliterate the iconic hill as well as the prehistoric treasures it holds.
A study had been conducted by Universiti Teknologi Petronas and commissioned by Lafarge Malaysia on the feasibility of subsurface limestone quarrying, which showed that the method is indeed feasible.
He further added that a senior research officer from Mineral Research Centre, Ramli Mohd Osman, had pointed out that there are 21 billion tonnes of subsurface limestone reserves that can be mined without destroying Perak’s limestone hills.
“We urge the government to explain why it allows the destruction of the limestone hills that are iconic to Ipoh when it can be sourced from below ground as experts have pointed out.
“Is it because blasting the hills into oblivion is the most cost-effective way to obtain the material?”
He added the government should be held accountable for the wanton destruction of the limestone hills, as well as the consequences of environmental damage due to the irresponsible issuance of quarrying permits. – The Vibes, August 12, 2021.
