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Bukit Timah drainage project almost done
Melody Zaccheus Straits Times 23 Sep 18;
Drainage improvement work on the Bukit Timah First Diversion Canal to help keep floods at bay is almost 90 per cent complete.
The project is due to be finished by the year end, providing protection for the upper Bukit Timah Catchment, which includes areas such as Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Beauty World Plaza and Bukit Timah Shopping Centre.
Yesterday, national water agency PUB officially unveiled enhancement works along an 800m stretch of the canal located between Holland Green and Holland Plain.
It has features such as three rain gardens, designed to cleanse rainwater run-off and improve the quality of water flowing into the canal.
There are also new shelters, benches, fitness equipment, a wetland, and paths for jogging and cycling. Rock walls and creeper plants now line the canal banks.
The two-year, $3.9 million project comes under PUB's Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters (ABC Waters) programme.
It is the 37th such project in Singapore and the first for Bukit Timah.
It was carried out in conjunction with PUB's drainage upgrading works for the 3.2km Bukit Timah First Diversion Canal that started in 2013. Improvement work on the canal, which flows into Pandan Reservoir, is being carried out in three phases.
In November 2009, a heavy downpour caused a diversion canal from the main Bukit Timah canal to burst its banks, with flood water partially submerging the ground floor of buildings and cars.
Holland-Bukit Timah GRC MP Christopher de Souza said at yesterday's ceremony: "The upgrading of the canal between Bukit Timah Road and Clementi Road enhances flood protection, and that is needed to protect residents.
"The project also serves to create vibrant community spaces for the community to bond near the water. This is in line with the vision of a green Holland-Bukit Timah GRC.
"Today's opening... reflects our collective vision to overcome water scarcity, to turn adversity into strength, to reimagine green community spaces and, with teamwork, to turn that into reality now."
Housewife Eunice Ng, 49, is glad about the better drainage after her condominium carpark flooded in July 2010, damaging her car. She also welcomed the ABC Waters project. "Now you can walk through and enjoy the scenic view," she said. It's more inviting and suitable for morning and evening walks."
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Malaysia: Three Indonesians caught smuggling 435 exotic animals
Muhammad Mustakim Ramli New Straits Times 22 Sep 18;
KANGAR: Perlis Customs Department rescued 435 exotic animals, including two orang utans, about to be smuggled into Malaysia on Saturday.
Its director Datuk Seri T Subromanian said the animals, kept in 39 boxes, were found underneath a compartment inside a fishing boat.
The Customs team intercepted the boat near the Kuala Perlis-Langkawi border at 12.25am.
"The team arrested three Indonesian men, aged between 40 and 50 years old.
"They have valid travel documents but no permits or papers for the animals." he said.
Apart from the orang utans, other animals rescued were sugar gliders, baby albino foxes, baby crocodiles, birds of paradise, white cockatoos, eclectus parrots, long-tailed parakeets and great arguses.
Subromaniam said most of the animals were classified as endangered species and could fetch a high price in the black market.
He said checks showed that the animals originated from Sumatera and were meant for local market.
He added that the suspects and animals have been handed over to the Wildlife Department for further action.
The case is being investigated under Section 135(1)(e) of the Customs Act 1967 for importing uncustomed and prohibited goods.
Hundreds of wild animals saved
g.c. tan The Star 23 Sep 18;
KANGAR: Two orang utan, looking stressed and frightened, are among hundreds of endangered or exotic animals that had been travelling in the sea for three nights before the Customs Department foiled the smuggling attempt.
The animals, which were found on a vessel around midnight on Friday near Langkawi and Kuala Perlis, were being sent to Thailand.
It is learnt that the animals could fetch up to RM500,000 in the black market.
Besides the orang utan, other animals kept in 39 boxes were two baby Albino fox, two paradise birds (burung cenderawasih), two alba cockatoos, two electus parrots, 21 long-tailed parakeet birds (burung bayan nuri), a female great argus bird (burung kuang raya), 48 baby saltwater crocodiles (buaya tembaga) and 355 sugar glider squirrels.
He said they also detained three Indonesian crew members aged between 40 and 50.
“The captain failed to produce documents on the cargo when we stopped them. “Upon inspection, we found the animals.
“All the seized exotic wildlife had been handed over to Perlis Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan),” he told a press conference yesterday.
The crew members are believed to have smuggled the wildlife from Sumatra, Indonesia.
On another matter, Perhilitan director-general Datuk Abdul Kadir Abu Hashim said poachers who install and own snares would face more severe penalties when the Wildlife Conservation Act is reviewed.
“The use of snares is a serious crime that can cause injuries and deaths to wildlife while some were permanently disabled,” he told Bernama.
At present, individuals convicted of using snares could be fined not less than RM50,000 and not more than RM100,000 and imprisoned not exceeding two years.
“We recommend that amendments to this act impose a longer jail term and a heavier penalty,” he said.
Abdul Kadir said that from January to July, 26 wildlife species such as tapir, sun bear, serow, sambar deer and deer were found dead after being caught in snares.
He said as many as 653 wire and nylon snares and bird nets were destroyed since the beginning of the year while 79 forest sites were identified as the poachers’ area of focus.
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Malaysia: Heavier penalties for poachers - Wildlife Department
Bernama New Straits Times 22 Sep 18;
KUALA LUMPUR: Poachers who install and own snares will face more severe penalties when the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 [Act 716] is reviewed, says Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) director general Datuk Abdul Kadir Abu Hashim.
According to him, Act 716 would be amended to ensure that more severe penalties were imposed on poachers who use snares to kill or capture wildlife for profit.
“This is a proposal to improve the legal provisions and to increase and enforce the punishments for the offenders involved.
“The use of snares is a serious crime that can cause injuries and deaths of various species of wildlife while some were permanently disabled,” he said when met recently by Bernama.
At present, individuals convicted of using snares could be fined not less than RM50,000 and not more than RM100,000 and imprisoned not exceeding two years.
Kadir said the punishments were seen as not comparable with the deaths and fates of wildlife that was increasingly threatened by extinction due to the greed of the hunters.
“We recommend that amendments to this act impose a longer jail term and a heavier penalty,” he said.
However, the draft proposal to amend the act was still at the proposal level and would be presented to the Minister of Water, Land and Natural Resources Dr Xavier Jayakumar to be discussed before it is proposed in Parliament.
Kadir said that from January to July this year, 26 wildlife species, such as tapir, sun bear, serow, sambar deer and deer (kijang) were found dead after being caught in snares.
He said as many as 653 wire and nylon snares and bird nets were destroyed since the beginning of the year while 79 forest sites in the country were identified as the poachers’ area of focus. — BERNAMA
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India probes death of 12 endangered lions
AFP Yahoo News 21 Sep 18;
New Delhi (AFP) - Indian authorities Friday ordered a probe into the deaths of a dozen endangered wild Asiatic lions, half of them cubs, over the last 10 days, officials said.
One lioness died after preying on a poisoned boar while eight others lions died of an infection in the lungs and liver.
Three cubs were killed in infighting while other three passed away in the course of treatment.
Gujarat officials have sent the lions' carcasses to a veterinary hospital for further analysis into the cause of infection.
"Primarily the deaths appear due to natural causes or some infection," Vijay Chaudhary, forest department official, told AFP.
Listed as critically endangered in 2000, wild Asiatic lions reside only in one Indian forest -- the Gir Sanctuary spread over 1,400 square kilometres (545 square miles) in the western state of Gujarat.
The lions, a major tourist attraction in the state, have been a target of poachers in the past.
Experts said that the deaths cannot be dismissed as part of a natural cycle.
"There needs to be some preventive action by tracking the pride of lions in the area and checking them for infections," Priyavrat Gadhvi, a wildlife expert and members of state wildlife board in Gujarat, told AFP.
According to the latest lion count done in 2015, there are 521 Asiatic lions. About 10 of them died in floods in 2016.
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