By Nurul Suhaidi
GOMBAK, 26 April 2019: The Malayan tiger is the most iconic animal facing threats of mass extinction due to its habitat loss and the animal being constantly and heedlessly snared leaving its population with less than 200 roaming in the jungle of Peninsular Malaysia.
Aimed at preventing its extinction and revealing the reality behind Malaysia’s wildlife threats, RIMAU’s representative, Amira Afendi, in “Let’s talk about wildlife” programme held recently, has urged the authorities and the public to take immediate action to preserve Malayan tigers.
In her speech, she proposed that we should advocate ourselves to safeguard the tiger’s life and encourage secure action for tigers by writing to our state representatives. “In all circumstances, avoid purchasing any tiger product, report any act of deviance or tiger trap found to the PERHILITAN (Department of Wildlife and National Parks) hotline. Participate as volunteers and collaborate with the organisations concerned to protect the animal,” she stressed.
Since the past few months the IIUM ECO club has collaborated with the Student Representative Council (SRC) in holding various activities to create awareness among IIUM community towards preserving nature and environment. “We aim to help propagate IIUM campus towards ECO- friendly environment and raise awareness,” said programme manager Haziq in his opening remarks.
Among those who were at the “Let’s talk about wildlife” programme, apart from the main speaker, to show their concern and solidarity, were NGO representatives of the Jungle School Gombak, RIMAU, and the Youth Environmental Advocates through the roles expressed by their speakers Aidil Iman and the President of IIUM ECO club, Fitri Baderulnizam.
Subsequently, Jungle School Gombak is geared towards enhancing as well as educating the indigenous community (the Orang Asli) in Gombak to maintain their living cultural heritage. The school was founded by Prof Dr. Nor Zalifa Zainal Abidin and Major (R) Kalam.
Both had emphasised the importance of indigenous people as they highly value the jungle and would not simply kill any animal. “If we maintain good relationship with them, in return, they can monitor our jungle and help preserve our wildlife,” said Major (R) Kalam.
The speakers expressed their expectations on solidarity for wildlife and the environment to be reached through every little contribution made by everyone. **