MANJUNG: Turtle landing and eco-tourism activities as well as the physical structure of Pasir Panjang beach will be destroyed if the state government does not re-gazette the area, says Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM).

       SAM field researcher Meor Razak Meor Abdul Rahman said the area was de-gazetted on Feb 2, 1989, and since then, various tree planting programmes had been implemented before being threatened by an illegal sand extraction project since last November.

       He said several NGOs filed a complaint over the matter on Nov 4.

       “The local community thought action was taken when they were informed that the authorities had inspected the area in early December, which is why they were shocked to see movement of sand mining machinery there since it was fenced up on Dec 28.

       “We went to the area several days ago and found trees in the forest area had been chopped to make way for heavy vehicles to transport the extracted sand.

       “Cut trees were piled up in addition to environmental destruction. This is very sad,” he said.

       Meor Razak claimed that to date, about 30% of the 130ha area had been encroached and it was feared that this would affect the turtle landing site, the coastal eco-system, as well as animals such as the sun bears and their natural habitat.

       He said based on the National Physical Plan, all turtle landing sites in the peninsula, including the Pasir Panjang beach, were categorised as Rank 1 ESA (environmentally sensitive area), which can only be used for activities involving low-impact tourism, education and research.

       Checks by Bernama found felled trees, piles of wood, as well as the presence of three sand dredgers in the area, which had been marked with barricade tape by the authorities.

       According to previous reports, Manjung Municipal Council said it had not received any application for sand mining activity and had issued a stop-work order against the project.