Perlis Forestry Department to rehabilitate jungle after exhumation of graves

The Perlis Forestry Department will rehabilitate parts of the jungle affected by the discovery of transit camps used by human trafficking syndicates, including via replanting of trees.

According to its director, Ridzuan Salleh, forestry department officers were still unable to enter the area to review the affected areas.

He said those areas were still within the police and forensic investigation operations, and to avoid disrupting them, the review could only be done after they were completed.

"These areas are still under police investigation, so the forestry department has yet to enter them to review trees which may be cut down," he told Bernama in a WhatsApp message today.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim had earlier said the government would provide allocations to the forestry department to replant trees in the jungle so that recreational activities could be resumed.

Recently, the public was stunned over news of the discovery of 139 graves t 28 transit camps, believed to have been abandoned by human trafficking syndicates, beginning in Kampung Wai, Kuala Perlis to Tangga 100 in Felcra Lubuk Sireh, Padang Besar near the Malaysia-Thailand border.

A total of 35 skeletal remains were discovered in the operations which began on May 25, and all have been moved to the Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital, Alor Setar before autopsies were conducted, beginning June 7.

The second phase of exhuming the graves in a new camp at the Mata Ayerforest reserve area in Lubuk Sireh will begin tomorrow, with 91 graves believed to have been located.

The camp is sited about 100 metres from the Thailand border and is now closely guarded by the General Operations Force to ensure the evidence is not stolen to enable the forensic and police teams to complete their investigations.

The Perlis Forest Reserve is located on the western border of the state where it joins Thailand and sits on the longest stretch of limestone hills known as Nakawan Range.

Covering 5,000 hectares, it is a secondary jungle comprising the Mata Ayer and Wang Mu Forest Reserves, in the only state in the country with the most number of the Cycas livicola species (bogak).

The bogak is a type of plant with an interesting trunk and leaves resembling those of a palm, and has existed for millions of years.

It grows wild along the hill slopes of the Nakawan Range and Wang Mu near the Thailand border. It is a plant which is controlled and protected to prevent its extinction.

Besides being a forest heritage, the area is also rich in fauna, including the stump-tailed macaque (Macaca arctoides), Sumatran serow (Capricornis sumatraensis), lar gibbon (Hylobates lar) and sun bear (Helarctos malayanus).

It is understood that mountain climbing activities for tourists have been temporarily stopped after the police closed off the area for the search and unearthing of graves of victims of human trafficking syndicates.

Previously, visitors were allowed to scale the hills and stay in the jungle up to one-kilometre in the state forest area, as well as explore the caves of Wang Burma for about 30 minutes.