‘Botanical park to have more bamboo species’

BAU: Research and Development Movement of Singai Sarawak ( Redeems) is planning to bring in more bamboo species to its Bamboo Botanical Park at Obut Bikatang, Apar, Singai near here.

Its president Datuk Peter Nansian Ngusie said as of now at least 30 species of bamboo are found at the park which covers an area of about 40 acres of virgin forest.

“Presently we have at least 30 species, including the readily available local bamboos. Some of them were brought in from outside and we are planning to bring in some more new species from time to time,” he said.

Nansian, who is Assistant Community Services Minister and Tasik Biru assemblyman, told reporters this at the work party, locally known as ‘Pingiris’, organised by Bau District Community Leaders Club at the park yesterday.

He revealed that apart from

Presently we have at least 30 species, including the readily available local bamboos. Some of them were brought in from outside and we are planning to bring in some more new species from time to time.

bamboo, several species of herbs are also available at the botanical park which is still open to the public for free.

“At the moment we are not collecting any entrance fee from visitors and anyone is free to come but there are some rules to observe.

“The rules are you cannot take away anything except photos and also one cannot leave behind anything except his footsteps,” he said.

He explained that the Bamboo Botanical Park was not a plantation like what many people assumed but merely a garden where people can carry out some studies and researches.

According to him, Obut Bikatang was a place where their ancestors kept skulls in the belief that they would help guard and protect them from danger or sickness.

“So this area was considered as sacred in a sense and ever since no one has come to take away any woods or plants from here but in recent years, people are becoming more daring and slowly trying to encroach into the land to steal some good trees for timber.

“In order to stop that from happening we converted this area into a park and hopefully it will become one of the tourism products for the state,” he said.

To further develop the park, he said they were working with people from China to establish a Chinese Botanical Park within the same area.

Datuk Peter Nansian Ngusie, Assistant Community Services Minister and Tasik Biru assemblyman