JANUARY 26 — The public finds it hard to accept the statement issued by Kelantan’s forestry department director Abdul Khalim Abu Samah that logging helps to increase tiger population.
We at the Sustainable Malaysia Association are disappointed with the Kelantan forestry department’s handling of widespread deforestation and their effort (or the lack of) in wildlife conservation.
Tiger population in the country in 2014 was estimated to be between 250 to 400, according to data from the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan), World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Persatuan Penyelidik Rimba Malaysia (Rimba).
The latest estimation from Perhilitan revealed that there are less than 200 tigers in Malaysia today.
The forestry department’s own statistic shows that the forest area in Malaysia has reduced 120,000 hectares from 5.81 million hectares in 2011 to 5.69 million hectares by 2020.
These two data sets suggest that the tiger population has drastically decreased due to deforestation.
The incident on January 7 that involved a tiger attacking villager in Gua Musang, Kelantan is highly likely due to the animal’s habitat being disturbed that it went out from its natural territory.
It is unfortunate that the Kelantan Deputy Mentri Besar continues to deny the impact of widespread logging in the state on the tiger population.
The Kelantan state government should step up in stopping deforestation while put in real effort in wildlife conservation.
Wong Yi Hao (from Kelantan)
Committee member of Sustainable Malaysia Association
Sources:
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or organisation and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
