About 1,500 villagers and members of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) today held a peaceful demonstration to protest against illegal logging activities alleged to have been carried out at the Hulu Sat Forest Reserve in Machang for the last three years.

They claimed that as a result of the activities, residents suffered loss of their source of water, worsening agricultural yield, encroachment of elephants and road damage at the Bukit Bakar tourist centre.

“During the administration of Barisan Nasional (BN) in 1980, logging was completely banned as the area has been gazetted as a water catchment area,” said a village resident, Mat Lazim Harun, 60, when met at the demonstration.

Meanwhile, Kamaruddin Abdul Kadir who is the chairperson of the Kelantan People’s Action Council, said the encroachment showed the state government was too weak to act.  

He stressed that if the residents did not want the activities to continue, the present state government needed to be changed to BN, which was more capable, in the coming general election.

- Bernama