Pahang mulls over making fossil discovery site a tourist attraction

KUANTAN: The Pahang Government is set to give tourists a feel of the prehistoric era as it mulls over turning the site of a recent Jurassic-era plant fossil find in Kota Gelanggi, Jerantut into a tourist attraction.

State culture and tourism committee chairman Datuk Seri Mohd Sharkar Shamsudin said however, the move would only be taken after the committee received a full report on the discovery of the fossil, believed to date back to between 146 million and 200 million years.

“If it is truly a plant fossil, I will also suggest to the state government to conserve the forest and vicinity of the discovery site to be made into a tourist attraction.

“We don’t want the tourists to visit for merely one or two days... instead, we want them to stay on longer for the benefit of the villagers there,” he told reporters after closing the ‘Kuantan Windsurfing and Kitesurfing Challenge 2015’ at Pantai Batu Hitam here yesterday.

Mohd Sharkar said the state government needed to look into the commercial value if t he place were to be set as a tourist attraction location.

Therefore, the plan could not be hatched in a rush, he noted.

On Saturday, a local newspaper reported the discovery of fossils in the shape of leaf fragments, stems and branches on the surface of a stone at a junction in Kota Gelanggi.

The finding was made by Ahmad Rosli Othman, an officer from the Kelantan Minerals and Geoscience Department.

Meanwhile, Mohd Sharkar said the East Coast Economic Region had agreed to develop Kampung Paya Siput at Lanchang - believed to be the centre of Peninsular Malaysia - as a tourist attraction.