By SALINA KHALID | Jan 13, 2010
Bald spot on Titiwangsa Range causes concern
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Scenic: A file picture of the hills and mountains on the Titiwangsa Range.
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WHEN one thinks about the Titiwangsa Range or Banjaran Titiwangsa, one will think that it is a long stretch of green covered area, connecting various states including Perak, Selangor and Pahang.
But a recent check by the Selangor Forestry Department revealed that there is a bald spot somewhere on the north western side of the border between Selangor and Pahang.
Selangor tourism, consumer and environment committee chairman Elizabeth Wong said the forest should be connected with the main range (Banjaran Titiwangsa) which is a mountainous spine of the peninsular and the state would do all it could to get it reconnected.
“The green area (forest) is supposed to be connected so that the animals can roam free but when we checked the satellite photo we realised that there is a bald spot disconnecting the Selangor side of the forest to the Pahang side of the range.
“This bald spot is a clear area without trees. Ten years ago it was not like that,” she said.
She added that the area was the country’s natural treasure and should be valued more than its timber. She said not many people realised how important it was to keep the forest due to its biodiversity.
Losing the forest will mean losing the biodiversity including the flora, fauna and all the wild life.
She said this after delivering a talk on environment at the Rotary Club of Pudu’s weekly meeting at Shangri-La Hotel on Monday.
Also present was club’s president Robin Tay.
Wong said the spot was detected somewhere north of Kuala Selangor and bordering the Pahang side of the range.
The image was different from the one taken several years earlier.
She added that the state government, through the forestry and the wildlife and parks departments, is in the process of conducting an assesment to find out details about the bald spot.
Wong said the departments are working together with relevant NGOs, including the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), to gather information about the problem and come up with a plan to restore the area.
Currently, they do not have information on the size of the area involved and how bad the damage is.
“Right now we still do not know the condition there and whether the bald spot is actually an act of nature or human intervention. It is all right if the bald spot is actually a river because the animals can still cross over to the other side but what if it is actually a cleared land and the animals do not have access to the other side.
“These animals should not be confined to a specific area, what more to a specific state,” she said.
She said an alternative considered is to create an underground passage for the animals to cross.
The project is expected to take at least three years to be completed.
“This is a vision that we have and we will find a way to make it materialise,” she said.
After the talk, Wong also witnessed the presentation of RM10,250 by the club to Gates Foundation and Rotary International to help in efforts to combat polio.
The amount was raised through the Rotary Walk where participants walked more than 500km from Alor Star to Kuala Lumpur from Dec 22 to Jan 8, 2010. The walk was headed by Tay.
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