BUTTERWORTH: The Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Ministry is awaiting the detailed report on the landslide tragedy in Cameron Highlands, Pahang last Friday, which claimed five lives, before deciding on the next course of action.
Its minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said the ministry needed to pay serious attention to the incident to prevent a recurrence in the future.
"With regard to the latest incident in Cameron Highland, the ministry is awaiting a complete report and needs to get the actual picture of the incident before taking further action.
"The ministry, together with other parties such as the local authority and the state government, are also collecting the information and we will notify the immediate action that needs to be taken.
"At the ministry level, it (incident report) involves the aspects of geo-science mineral, forestry and the environment…all these matters need to be given serious attention because we don't want it to happen again in the future," he told reporters here today.
Nik Nazmi, who is also PKR vice-president said this after attending the opening ceremony of the Bagan PKR branch office in Taman Segar Jaya here today.
It was reported that all five Myanmar farm workers, buried beneath the landslide at Batu 59 in Blue Valley, had been recovered, bringing the search and rescue (SAR) operation to an end.
The landslide site was illegally cleared.
Cameron Highlands district officer, Syed Ahmad Khirulanwar Al-Yahya Syed Abdul Rahman, said the landslide incident in Kampung Raja, Blue Valley, occurred in the Sungai Wi D Forest Reserve area, which had been illegally cleared by a vegetable farm operator since last year, despite facing enforcement actions.
He said the local farm owner was arrested during an enforcement operation by the Pahang State Forestry Department in April last year.