I REFER to your front-page report “Lord of the Moss no more” (NST, July 4). It’s about the never-ending story of how our famed Mossy Forest in Cameron Highlands is going bald despite the promises from the Pahang government to form a taskforce to curb deforestation in the highlands.
The Federal Government must hold the Pahang government accountable for having yet to find a long-term solution to this menace.
I remember reading Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim promising a taskforce will monitor areas identified as hotspots for illegal deforestation for 24 hours.
It is saddening to hear about a taskforce, a committee or the government declaring war to fight the menace in the highlands.
In 2013,the then natural resources and environment minister Datuk Seri G. Palanivel announced that a taskforce would be formed under his ministry to tackle the problem.
Two years later, another taskforce under the Public Complaints Bureau was to have submitted its report to the cabinet on the same issue.
Following flash floods and revelations on illegal land clearing and farming in Cameron Highlands, a multi-agency committee chaired by then deputy prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was formed.
Now Pahang Tourism and Culture Committee chairman Datuk Seri Mohd Sharkar Shamsudin said the problems in the forest would be addressed after Hari Raya.
C. SATHASIVAM SITHERAVELLU
Seremban, Negri Sembilan