IPOH: The Perak Forestry Department has issued a temporary stop-work order on logging activities near the Pos Kemar orang asli (indigenous) settlement at Gerik, northern Perak.

Department director Datuk Mohamed Zin Yusop said that an immediate site visit has been arranged to identify the source of silting and pollution in the river.

“The logging activities are halted while the department finds out what caused the river water to be murky,” he said when contacted here today (July 24).

It was reported today (July 24) that a group of orang asli from the Pos Kemar orang asli settlement in Perak wants the state government to put a stop to the logging in their jungle area.

They said the logging, which has been halted for seven months since last December following protests, had resumed and heavy logging caused the river to become shallower and murkier.

This had affected their source of drinking water.

They also claimed that the logging, which has been going on since 2012, had destroyed many trees and jeopardised thehir livelihoods, which is based on jungle products.

The orang asli added that logging had destroyed their ancestors’ graves.

On June 9 last year, The Star highlighted the orang asli’s plight and their threat to have blockades if the logging was not halted.

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Orang Asli in Perak threaten blockade