Safari-park plan for Sungai Lembing

KUANTAN: Sungai Lembing, once the country’s tax-free tin mining area, will be developed into a safari zone. 

Kuantan Town Council (MPK) has proposed that some 1,000ha in the Sungai Bayas valley, 8km from Sungai Lembing, be transformed into a safari park. 

The proposal was first mooted by the Pahang Menteri Besar two years ago. 

“The project is a capital intensive one and we have to plan it carefully to turn it into a tourist attraction, keep the environment intact and as close to nature as possible and ensure animals are not hunted,” council president Datuk Muhammad Safian Ismail told The Star. 

For a start, the council is offering Taman Teruntum Zoo in Teluk Chempedak as an alternative safari site. 

“We want to gauge if tourists are keen on this type of attraction.” 

Muhammad Safian said the safari idea was initially offered to Zoo Negara when it was looking at relocating to another site. 

“The offer was made to them but there was no indication that the zoo's management was keen on this.” 

He said (MPK) had expressed its keenness to several other parties to set up the safari, but to ensure the success of the venture, we offered the mini-zoo first. 

He said a private party keen on operating the zoo had been given a licence is keep some 90 species of animals. 

Sungai Lembing, which will be a “heritage town” due to its historical importance, has several tourist attractions such as watching the sun rise on Panorama Hill, the tunnels of the old tin mines, a deer farm and a hot spring. 

State assemblyman, Datuk Md Sohaimi Mohamad Shah said that transforming the old tin mine into a heritage town and safari site would provide job opportunities and inject a new lease of life to the place.