KUALA LUMPUR: It was a long winding road up as the New Straits Times team headed to Fraser’s Hill in search of a piece of land said to have been massively cleared for the lucrative logging and mining industry.
We were informed by the Association for the Protection of the Natural Heritage of Malaysia (Peka) president Puan Sri Shariffa Sabrina Syed Akil that it was 12km in the direction of Raub from The Gap.
After a few minutes, there it was — huge piles of orange soil covering the side of the road.
If you were not observant, there was a chance you would have missed it as it was hidden in a corner, blocked by trees.
A huge log blocked the entrance, acting as a barricade. As the NST team crossed over it, we discovered a knee-deep makeshift drain.
Traces of soil could be seen covering a one-lane road below — the only path into Kampung Bukit Telaga, which was home to nine Orang Asli families.
It was a 300m hike up the main logging site, where lush greenery had been turned into an “orange desert”, which had been recently showered with rain, turning it into a muddy wasteland.
Logs left by contractors were stacked at various corners of the clearing, waiting to be picked up and sold, while a half-finished camp of chopped tree branches stood at the side of the hill overlooking the path below.
Emotions overwhelmed me as I saw Mother Nature’s beauty destroyed.
Questions burst into my mind: “How could they have the heart to do this? How far does this land clearing go and does it go further and deeper into the forest? If they continue with this, will Fraser’s Hill become the next Cameron Highlands?”
As fate would have it, the NST team bumped into geologist Dr Azhar Hussin and his team of researchers at the logging and soon-to-be mining site.
The retired Universiti Malaya professor said he and three others came to Fraser’s Hill to see the site for themselves after photographs and videos were shared by Peka on social media.
There was no proper drainage system in the area, he said, and it could cause problems to those living in the area both in the long term and near future.
Upon inspecting the site’s entrance, his team decided to walk down to Kampung Bukit Telaga to see the condition of the village. The roads were covered in mud.
“Looking uphill, we can see it came from here (the logging site). When we came here, a log was blocking the entrance and after it, we saw a drain.
“The drain has chanelled the mud downwards to the road and over time, it will be covered with earth. This will cut off any means of communication and travel. The whole village may not be buried by mud, but the road to it will definitely be.
“The other impact is on the main road. If they do not clear the soil at the entrance, more mud will flow down, especially during the rainy season. It will wash onto the road, making it narrower,” he said, adding that mudslides could occur frequently.
Azhar expressed concern over the unbridled clearing of forests that could lead to severe erosion across the entire hill, subsequently causing mud floods at low-lying areas and Orang Asli settlements.
“If they continue with no proper drainage and no proper method… I can see they are really cutting into the soil deeply, leaving a lot of vertical slopes... if you notice a lot of big trees are on the slopes and those will fall over time.
“Remember, Frasers Hill is also a water catchment area and this goes down to the rivers. Over time, if you do not control it, the drainage basin will be affected,” he said.
A specialist in sedimentology and marine geology, Azhar said if the Pahang government decides to continue with the land clearing activities, it should be well monitored to avoid further destruction to the environment.
He urged the authorities to review the site and “re-manage” it better as well to look at the licence given out, whether it was really necessary to overdevelop the area.
“If you see up there at the logging site… they have flattened everything, big and small trees are all gone.
“It has only been two months or so and it can be seen as very destructive. This road goes a long way down and we do not know if any similar locations are of similar fate.
“This area is almost near the top of the hill and if a licence can be given here, I'm sure licence for those in the lower slope areas will be easier to hand out,” he said.
Meanwhile, the NST team bumped into two exhausted Orang Asli sisters — Mariani and Pretty — on the main road as they were returning from their farm.
Mariani said the clearing activities started two months back and had only recently stopped, last week.
She said a few representatives had come to Kampung Bukit Telaga and met with the Tok Batin, to talk about their future plans about the land next to the village.
The Tok Batin did not agree to it, she claimed.
However, Mariani said she could not tell the NST team anything else as she was not present nor was she briefed about what transpired in the meeting.
“We hope they stop and do not continue,” she said, as the siblings rode off on their motorcycle.