IPOH: The Kinta Valley boasts the largest limestone karst landscapes in Peninsular Malaysia. However, quarry projects continue to put the natural assets in jeopardy.
Local conservation group Kinta Valley Watch has called on quarry industry players to "strike a right balance" between public interest and industrial gain.
"Limestone hills are non-renewable assets. Quarry companies should turn towards subsurface limestone quarrying instead of rock blasting exercises to extract limestone.
"They should also listen to and take into account the concerns of the local community to protect our natural heritage.
"For example, Lafarge Malaysia Berhad has been conducting conservation works on Gunung Kanthan to preserve cave biodiversity.
"This is a great example, where a right balance is achieved between industrial development and biodiversity conservation," its spokesperson told the New Straits Times yesterday.
Kinta Valley Watch also called on the state government to conduct studies on limestone hills and caves, which host fossils and endemic cave fauna.
Goh Ah Poon, 62, an avid cave explorer, said preservation efforts of Perak's limestone resources "lack foresight".
"Limestone caves in Kinta Valley provide important links to our past.
"For example, I know of a lecturer in Kampar who is writing a paper on how Kinta Valley could have probably been submerged underwater in the past.
"This could be the reason why primitive men were probably able to write and draw so high up on cave walls.
"In fact, some Universiti Malaya (UM) scientists also discovered the fossil of an extinct elephant, Stegodon, at a limestone cave in Gopeng.
"It was the first stegodon fossil to have been discovered in our country.
"Unfortunately, our authorities give little attention to history. But, we need to remember that history cannot be replaced once it is lost," he said.
Therefore, Goh believes that the few remaining pristine limestone hills in the Kinta Valley should be preserved and protected from quarry projects.
"The authorities should at least conduct studies on the treasures inside the caves before approving any destructive quarries projects.
"Once quarried, limestone hills lose their value forever and they cannot be repossessed by any means," he said.