Celebrating Cave & Karst Day 6, June 2023.. While You Still Can.

Ching Boon Tat outlining the hills and caves in the Kinta Valley

Had a very fulfilling 2 Sundays ago when I attended Cave & Karst Day at Tin Alley, Ipoh. Kinta Valley Watch (KWV) that enthusiastic caving and karst group had organised a talk and exhibition on the ‘wonderful, though now being decimated’ Kinta Valley.

Limestone hills and quarraying throughout the Kinta Valley  

Central Kinta Valley in 2020 

Same place in 2023...Ching Boon Tat showing the audience the impact of quarrying 

The exhibition featured a video on the hills in the valley which was narrated by Ching Boon Tat of KVW.  For a clearer understanding KVW also included a talk on the location of the hills on a geological map of the Kinta Valley with the location of each limestone hill placed on within each respective district.

Besides the map they also had graphic photographs of the cave interiors. KVW members over the last four year had explored and collected alot of documentary evidence. 

Photos showing the 'treasures' of the Kinta Valley - cave paintings, fossils, karst land scapes and more 

Overall it was a great effort on the part of KVW. The leader Ching Boon Tat spoke only Chinese but there were volunteers on hand to assist with translations.

What I learnt from this exhibition was these hills were located in 3 districts and then there was the Geopark. I always thought the Geopark was a touristy kind of department and did not oversee the management of the districts which was for generating income. In summary i do not forsee any add value to the future of the valley. 

My main concern is for the future of Gunong Lanno. Lanno still has its remaining hill outcrop mostly intact. History has it that the pair of Charles Alma Baker and his Chinese partner Chew Boon Juan who mined the unlikely vein of tin in the hill had struck it rich in 1903.  They became rich and subsequently contributed handsomely to the British WWI war effort with a contribution each of $1,000 each.  

Beside that fact there was a pipeline which "should have been constructed by Osborne and Chappel" through Gua Gatsch, G. Lanno to pipe water to the open cast mines west of the hills.

The jewel that is Gunong Lanno. A tin mine within at Gua Gatsch, evidence of industrial heritage

...the pipeling through the cave ......

Kinta Valley Watch members exploring Gua Gatsch. The pipeline had long been removed.

Now the hill is slowly but surely being encroached and that is so unacceptable to all except the quarry operators. Can the state do anything out-of-thebox to preserve this very historical hill and leave a legacy of this Tin Mining heritage of a wonderful industry in the Kinta Valley.  I guess the fate of the Gunong Lanno is slowly a goner sooner if not later.

KC