Kelantan denies logging causes tigers to prowl in Orang Asli settlements in Gua Musang

KOTA BHARU: The Kelantan government has denied the claim that logging activities in the state have forced tigers out of their natural habitat and prowled into the Orang Asli settlements in Gua Musang.

This followed an incident last Friday (Jan 7) of an Orang Asli man mauled to death by a tiger in Kampung Sau near Pos Bihai.

Kelantan Deputy Menteri Besar Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah said a study should be conducted by the relevant parties to determine the factors that caused the mammal to come out of its natural habitat.

He said the incident of a tiger trespassing into a village in the state was not new as the sighting of the animal had been reported in the Jeli district, but the incident was never linked to the state's logging activities.

"This incident is an isolated case. If there are many cases, then it can be said due to logging. We cannot say it is because of deforestation for a tiger to attack and kill a person, but, if there are three or four tigers that encroach into a village then it is serious," he told reporters after the state executive council meeting at the Kota Darulnaim Complex here today.

He said this in response to a claim by an Orang Asli representative from the Temiar tribe, Nasir Dollah, 32, that human-wildlife conflict, especially of tigers trespassing into the Orang Asli villages in Pos Bihai, occurred due to the Kelantan government's action in approving thousands of forest areas for logging and other activities.

Yesterday, Nasir, representing the Temiar tribe, handed over a memorandum to the Prime Minister's Office urging Putrajaya to take concrete actions to stop deforestation activities in Gua Musang, Kelantan.

They blamed the recent fatal attack by a tiger and several sightings of the mammal near Orang Asli villages in the district on logging activities that caused wildlife to lose their habitats.

-- BERNAMA