Gunung
Stong State Park,
or Gunung Stong State Forest Park (GSSFP) to use its full title, is a pristine
forest reserve covering 21,950 hectares near the small town of Dabong in
Kelantan. It was gazetted as a state park and eco-tourism site in 2007. It is
managed by the Kelantan State Forestry Department.
Lovers
of outdoor recreational activities will find GSSFP has much to offer, similar
to the better known and much larger Taman Negara, but less commercialised due
to its somewhat remote location.
There
are at least seven sizeable peaks to climb, cascading waterfalls, including the
easily accessible Jelawang Waterfall, caves, rare animals, birds and plants and
more.
Geology
& Bio-Diversity
Geologically
GSSFP is described as migmatic, meaning a mixture of metamorphic
and igneous rocks resulting in interesting rock formations, colours and
textures.
The
State Park is classified as high conservation value forest and
is surrounded by other forest reserves, providing a natural buffer against
encroaching development. However this is under threat and during my visit in
August 2016 there was evidence of expensive logging activity (legal? illegal?)
going on close to GSSFP.
For
now, the forest is as ‘virgin’ as anywhere you will find in Peninsular Malaysia
and one of the few remaining places where large mammals still
roam in the wild. Sightings have been reported of elephants, Malayan Tiger,
black panther, barking deer and tapir among others.
Surveys
carried out in 2003 and 2005 counted 130 species of birds here
including five types of hornbill.
Plant life is
diverse too and among other endemic species there is a small bamboo (holttumochloa
pubescens) and a fan palm (licuala stongensis) found
here and nowhere else in the world
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