This follows reports of land clearing front-paged by a daily recently.
He admitted there was some encroachment of land outside the Bukit Relau and Bukit Penara forest reserves.
This could have been mistaken as taking place inside the virgin forest.
Rahman felt that the complainant could have also mistaken the farming nearby by the state investment arm, Penang Development Corporation, as encroachment, too.
Regarding the farming outside the forest fringe, Rahman said this could be a re-emergence of planting of bunga kantan (torch ginger), which was big in the same area back in the 1980s.
This bunga kantan is used in cooking.
“At this point, the Forestry Department is keeping a close watch on these areas to prevent them from expanding,” Rahman said in a statement today.
According to NST’s report, large tracts of land had been cleared in the two forest reserves to make way for farming and orchards.
Meanwhile, at a press conference in Komtar today, the Penang Government echoed the department’s findings, saying the “so-called encroachment” was not within the forest reserves.
State Environment Committee Chairman Phee Boon Poh said: “It was not on reserve land — not a single inch of reserve forest has been reduced or taken up by illegal farming.
“It is very unprofessional to report such things without getting confirmation from the authorities.
“I would like the newspaper to retract the report as it has given a bad impression about us.”
Phee said the Penang Government had helped green the state further.
“We have planted 271,000 trees in Penang and there is no illegal logging here. I support the call by Sahabat Alam Malaysia to jail those who encroach or destroy our jungles.”
Phee said in 1990s, strict enforcement was taken against those who encroached into the jungles and the culprits were fined RM10,000.
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