Kedah villagers demand stop to logging

Residents from six villages near here have appealed to the Kedah government to stop a logging concessionaire from felling trees in the nearby Gunung Inas forest, claiming it is affecting their water supply. Over 2,000 people from 350 families in the Keda Kemangi, Kemangi, Bendang Baru, Padang Lengkuas, Kuala Kuang and Padang Dan villages claimed that the logging, just a kilometre away from Keda Kemangi, polluted their source of water during rainy weather and made their taps run dry during the hot season. More than 200 of the villagers staged a peaceful protest at the logging site yesterday, urging Menteri Besar Datuk Mukhriz Tun Dr Mahathir to immediately stop the logging by the concessionaire. A villager, Nasir Awang, 50, claimed that the logging concession was approved by the previous PAS-led state government. He said it was feared that continued logging in the area would also lead to soil erosion.