Ministry identifying culprits in Cameron Highlands' illegal land clearing

The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry today directed all its agencies to work closer together in identifying the culprits behind the rampant illegal land clearing and occupation in Cameron Highlands, Pahang. Its minister Datuk Seri G. Palanivel said he had also directed the district officer and land officer in the area to give their cooperation to combat the illegal activities. He said illegal land clearing and occupation in the highlands had increasingly become rampant, resulting in the affected areas facing risks like landslides and flash floods. "This land encroachment is happening all the time and is a big problem in the highlands there. I don't know what's the source of the problem, which is difficult to control although there is monitoring done. "I myself had surveyed the area by air and we don't know who have illegally cleared the land to turn it into agriculture farms," he said after opening the Kuil Magazine Fiesta, here, today. Rejecting the possibility of the illegal land clearing done by the Orang Asli, Palanivel said the ministry and its 12 agencies would together continuously monitor the situation to prevent the problem from worsening. In another development, he said the haze situation in the country was improving with the Air Pollutant Index readings showing a drop in most areas. Palanivel said he would be meeting his counterpart in Indonesia to find and discuss solutions to the haze problem that hit Malaysia each year due to the forest fires in Central Sumatra. He said open burning activities in this country, meanwhile, were still under control and the ministry was indeed investigating and taking appropriate enforcement action on cases.