Kedah govt on the hunt for poachers in Ulu Muda
ALOR SETAR: The sign of poachers is unmistakable – tyre tracks of small four-wheel drive vehicles in the virgin jungle more than 15km from the nearest road across Muda Lake.
The Kedah government has vowed to launch a crackdown on the threat to wildlife there.
“We will send in forest rangers to inspect the abandoned logging trails that poachers are suspected of using,” said state Environment and Climate Change Committee chairman Simon Ooi.
Being twice the size of Singapore, Ooi said it was difficult for forest rangers to keep watch on every part of Ulu Muda.
“Our rangers patrol the jungle fringes 20 days a month, but they can’t be everywhere at once.
“We rely on villagers to alert us if they know of poachers entering the jungle,” he said, adding that he would contact Earth Lodge in Ulu Muda for more information.
The press and environmentalists, who visited a pristine hot spring deep within Ulu Muda Forest Reserve, stumbled upon the fresh tracks while on a mission to highlight the urgency to protect the massive virgin jungle.
Drone pictures taken by The Star showed that the fresh tracks were made by a few small off-road vehicles, capable of snaking through the dense woods.
The tracks showed that they drove into the clearing and to the edge of the hot spring, which is also a salt lick that animals frequent, before turning back into the jungle.
Earlier this month, Water Watch Penang brought newsmen to Earth Lodge in the upper reaches of Muda Lake for three days to observe wildlife.
Earth Lodge chief executive officer Hymeir Kamarudin said poachers used decades-old ex-logging trails, overgrown with trees, to venture deep into the jungle.
When shown on a map where the tyre tracks were seen, Kedah Loggers Association president Amin Mokhtar confirmed that none of their member companies had any logging compartments near the region.
“Those trails are over 60 years old and in the protected area,” he added.
Amin said logging compartments on the fringes of Ulu Muda constituted 10,000ha or 7% of the entire forest reserve.