Following our initial visit on the 12th June 2017, our reforestation work at Batu Gangan forest reserves, on the upper reaches of the Sungai Terla water catchment site, continued on the 18th June 2017. As with the first visit, we will leave Tanah Rata around 8.30 in the morning and upon arrival in the Kuala Terla site ,we would divide ourselves into a few groups with one group assisitng in the contruction of the toilets, another with the clean-up of the site and undergrowth and the last group with the tree planting plus documentation.
For this visit 50 trees consisting mainly of Geruk species were planted
Our volunteers included our three French students Tom, Aurelien ,Pablo and local residents Roy, Uthaya, Rose,Mr Khairil, Nitiya, Gopindran.
Ramesh and Parvathy did a good job clearing overhanging branches and bushes by the abandoned road which led up from the farms to the site. Not surprisingly the clean up work was difficult as there were rusty corrugated zinc sheets, planks, wooden beams with nails sticking out, iron bars, in general- debri found from demolished dwellings and a reptile or two… mad at being disturbed!
Meanwhile the construction proceeded smoothly with the base of the toilets laid.
Around noon we broke off for lunch. It was a cloudy day with a light drizzle and temperature hovered around 19 to 22 degrees Celcius. Lunch was a welcome sight and taken from the back of Kumar’s truck.
We left the site around 3 pm exhausted but satisfied that good work was done. Many thanks to all who helped.