KUALA LUMPUR – The prospect of fresh quarrying activities at Gunung Kanthan, an ecologically diverse hill in the Kinta Valley National Geopark in Perak, has triggered alarm on the fate of yet another cultural site there.
The community at the Kanthan Sri Kallumalai Maha Kaliamman Temple has been hit with anxiety over the Perak government’s decision to award a lease for the land on which the temple sits to a quarrying company.
A temple spokesman, who wished to remain anonymous, said the temple has been registered with the Registrar of Societies (RoS) since the 1970s.
He said the temple filed an application for a temporary occupation licence (TOL) in March last year, but the application was rejected and the lease awarded to Alam Jayamas Sdn Bhd instead.
According to documents sighted by The Vibes, Alam Jayamas’ mining lease was registered on July 21 last year, and only expires in 30 years.
The annual rent of the lease is valued at RM1,308.
“We applied for the TOL first. So, why did the state government give the lease to Alam Jayamas?” the temple spokesman told The Vibes.
In an email to The Vibes, Alam Jayamas spokesman Michelle Low confirmed that the company is the leaseholder of the land where the temple is sited.
She said the firm has yet to engage with the committee or representatives of the temple, and plans to do so after the movement control order (MCO) is over, when the situation permits.
“We hope that all those involved will respect and abide by the law.”
Not fully protected
The Hindu temple sits on Gunung Kanthan, a limestone hill upon which the Sakyamuni Caves Buddhist Monastery is also located.
However, Sakyamuni, on the opposite side of the hill, faces being evicted by a cement company also involved in quarrying activities.
Gunung Kanthan is in the Lembah Kinta Geopark, which is administered by the Perak State Parks Corporation (PSPC).
Geopark officer Ain Maisyara Yazrol had told The Vibes that, despite the geopark status, the hill does not have the same protection as state parks under the law.
“The geopark is under the PSPC’s purview, but we lack enforcement and laws that exist for state parks,” she said.
“So, the geopark is still subject to the (decisions of the) owner (leaseholder) of the land.”
The geopark office has advised the Sakyamuni monastery to apply to be designated a cultural heritage site.
Meanwhile, a Sri Kallumalai temple spokesman said its devotees and management are worried they may soon face the same fate in being evicted, although Alam Jayamas has yet to take any action against the Hindu temple.
An Alam Jayamas representative, meanwhile, told The Vibes that its office is temporarily closed and that directors familiar with the matter are unable to respond as they are held up in zones under an enhanced MCO (EMCO).
The representative said Alam Jayamas will respond on the matter by Monday.
Grave threat
Meanwhile, Muhamad Arafat Varisai Mahamad, the assemblyman for Hulu Kinta, the state constituency that covers Gunung Kanthan, said that he is against the decision to award the lease to the company.
“I want to make my stand clear: I am against this and I will discuss this with the menteri besar,” he said.
“During that time in 2020 (when the lease was awarded), there was a different menteri besar,” he told The Vibes.
He said the lease should not have been awarded, given that the temple has been there for so long, but will enquire if the lease was awarded subject to any terms relevant to the temple.
“I know the chairman of the temple and, within the soonest time, I will discuss the matter with them.
“If the government gave (Alam Jayamas) the lease only recently, I don’t agree,” Arafat added.
Environmental groups have warned that expanding quarrying operations at Gunung Kanthan poses a grave threat to the area’s endemic flora and fauna.
NGOs, including Sahabat Alam Malaysia, Sahabat Alam Activists’ Association, Perak Natural Heritage Geopark Tour Guides’ Association and Kinta Valley Watch, have jointly expressed concern about the risk to various species at the Perak geopark. – The Vibes, June 14, 2021
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