Kelantan forestry plans to buy more firearms for enforcement activities

 

The Kelantan Forestry Department plans to buy more firearms to boost enforcement efforts against illegal logging activities in the permanent forest reserves (HSK) in the state, its director Abdul Khalim Abu Samah said.

Currently, the department only has three pistols and five shotguns available for carrying out enforcement to eradicate illegal logging activities in the 629,775ha of HSK statewide and he deems that to be highly inadequate.

He said that 17 firearm licences had been issued to the officers and personnel of the department by the Home Affairs Ministry through the police since two years ago.

“We plan to buy additional firearms to be supplied to all the permit holders. However, the allocation for the purchase of firearms depends on the state government’s budget.

“We hope enforcement operations to eradicate encroachments into the forests can be done more effectively with the firearms purchase,” he said when contacted today, adding that there were 37 HSK in the state encompassing southern Kelantan in Gua Musang, west Kelantan in Tanah Merah and east Kelantan in Machang.

“In the last five years, 16 of the 37 HSK in Kelantan were intruded by illegal loggers who cut down trees of high-value. Most of them were in east Kelantan,” he said.

He added that 27 cases of illegal loggings were also detected in the state last year, resulting in millions of ringgit of losses and destructions to the environment.

- Bernama