ENFORCEMENT officers are fighting a losing battle against illegal loggers in Terengganu, so they claim. Given that the criminals are felling trees in water catchment areas, the downriver consequences are grave. Padi farming is affected and flooding during the monsoon season is inevitable. In Cameron Highlands, illegal farmers are still there, despite talk of bringing in the army to deal with the syndicate-run crime. Again, catchment areas are ruined and reservoirs silted, resulting in rivers of mud that rush downstream to kill and destroy. In Kuantan, illegal bauxite mining is poisoning the surrounding waters ” underground and rivers ” with the poison having entered the food chain. Experts say there are signs of early radioactive contamination. In Penang, excessive quarrying, both legal and illegal, is polluting the air, and blasting is causing cracks to appear in nearby homes. Poachers have hunted the Sumatran rhinoceros to extinction in this country. In short, no place and no animal is safe. And worse, neither are humans.
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