Amar also questioned why other wild animals – such as elephants and bears – did not encroach into Orang Asli villages the same way tigers did, if indeed logging was to blame.
It was previously reported that Orang Asli villagers in Gua Musang had complained that tigers were encroaching into their area as a result of habitat loss due to logging.
Kelantan’s forestry department director Abdul Khalim Abu Samah responded yesterday, saying that logging was “good for the population of tigers” and cited a WWF-Malaysia study that it would lead to an emergence of new plants, which would then attract animals which tigers could prey on.
“What he (Khalim) said is correct. There is a study by WWF,” Amar was quoted as saying in an interview on Astro Awani.
“Based on that… selected logging can help forest management. So, people should not blame logging for causing tigers to come out (of their forest habitat).”
In response to Khalim’s statement, the co-author of the WWF-Malaysia study, Mark Rayan Darmaraj, clarified that the study “alluded” that vegetation regeneration after selective logging could provide more browse material for tiger prey and thereby potentially contribute to a higher tiger density.
“More importantly, however, the paper clearly states that this hypothesis remains to be investigated further, and it is critical to recognise the caveats in interpreting this – which is not the case here,” he said in a statement.
Stating that the findings of his paper had been “misinterpreted and erroneously reported”, Darmaraj, who is currently country director of the Wildlife Conservation Society Malaysia Programme, said the long-term effects of selective logging on wildlife were still not clearly understood.
On Jan 7, an Orang Asli was mauled to death by a tiger near Pos Bihai, Gua Musang, with the community claiming that deforestation in Gua Musang had driven the animals closer to human settlement.
Orang Asli from Gua Musang have submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister’s Office over the safety of residents in Pos Bihai from animal attacks, with the group warning of more serious incidents if the government did not immediately stop logging activities that had allegedly disrupted the wildlife ecosystem.