Tras assemblyman Chow Yu Hui said the state government had said “a blatant lie” with the excuse that it wanted to protect the forest reserve. Chow said the state government had already de-gazetted 1,213ha of forest reserve land previously and had leased it to the Royal Pahang Durian consortium.

In a statement, he said the land leased to the company was classified as a water catchment area and the habitat of endangered Malayan tigers, which proved that “environmental protection” was just an excuse.

He accused the state government of wanting to “exterminate” small durian farmers in Raub to make way for the consortium while using the excuse of “environment preservation” to clear the land.

“If the state government is indeed concerned about the environment, it would not grant a huge swathe of land, which consisted of Malayan tiger habitat and water catchment areas, to a giant consortium.

“The state government’s enforcement operation is an elaborate act with ulterior motives. Their purposes are to deter other unlicensed farmers and create terror in order to force them to sign the unequal contract set by the consortium,” he said.

Chow said the durian farmers had not chopped down any trees in the forest reserve to plant the durian trees, but had simply converted idle land into durian farms.

He added that the land was idle as the state government had allowed companies to conduct logging in the area but did not replant any trees.

On July 4, durian farmers who tried to harvest their produce were stopped by police and forestry department officials, the latest incident in an ongoing tussle between the farmers and the state government over the land.

The Pahang government has accused the farmers of illegal farming and wants to evict them as the state has leased the land to a durian cultivation firm.

However, the farmers maintain they have a right to enter the land as the Court of Appeal granted them a stay against their eviction in January. The court ruled that the authorities are not allowed to evict or prevent the farmers from entering their orchards.