Stuart Michael The Star 8 Mar 11;
WITH a helicopter pin-pointing the location of three tents on an island, off Pulau Ketam in Port Klang, authorities still could not catch the mangrove thieves.
Last Friday, The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the Selangor State Forestry Department conducted a joint operation to catch the mangrove thieves.
In the operation, a helicopter was used to look for tents in the island and relay information to two boats at sea.
Selangor Forestry Depart-ment assistant director (operations and enforcement) Mohd Yussainy Md Yusop, who was in the helicopter, saw three tents and informed the authorities on the boats.
“Mangrove trees on both sides of a small channel prevented the boats carrying the officers from entering the site. The mangrove branches had to be cut before the boats could enter the area. This delayed the operation by four hours.
“Forestry personnel found that mangrove trees had been felled on the both sides of the narrow channel.
“The channel is only accessable by sampan or speed boat during high tide,” he said.
Yussainy said the culprits fled before the forestry personnel entered the site on foot.
“A storm further delayed the operation for about three hours as the helicopter was unable to fly during the rainy weather.
“As it was approaching night, the authorities had to abandon the search,’’ he said.
