Kelantan Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob (left) officiating at the Bukit Bakar Eco-Forest Park opening ceremony as state Forestry director Abdul Khalim Abu Samah (right) looks on. - Photo: Bernama
MACHANG: The Kelantan Forestry Department denies that image of traces of forest logging activities recorded by a drone that went viral on Monday 9Jan 17) were near the tiger habitat or the Orang Asli village in Pos Bihai, Gua Musang.
Kelantan Forestry director Abdul Khalim Abu Samah said the image taken using a drone showed the distance was close but instead it was between 5km to 6km from the location of the recent tiger attack.
"I advise the public not to manipulate the image as the logging location is not close to the tiger habitat or the location of the wild animal attack.
"Checks revealed that the location of the tiger attack, Pos Bihai, is an Orang Asli settlement area outside the Perias Permanent Forest Reserve," he told reporters after attending the Bukit Bakar Eco-Forest Park opening ceremony officiated by the Kelantan Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob here Monday.
He said this when asked to comment on media reports regarding allegations by a non-governmental organisation that recorded an image using a drone to detect logging activities in the tiger habitat area located near the Orang Asli village in Pos Bihai, Gua Musang.
Abdul Khalim said most of the Perias Forest Reserve was a production forest and there were several forest plantation development areas along the route to Pos Bihai.
He added that it had been gazetted as a Protection Forest (Water Catchment Forest) by the state government in 2019. - Bernama
