Taitung County’s Katratripul Village of the Puyuma community called on both the central and county governments to declare the Jhihben Wetlands (知本濕地) a national ecological conservation site, or at least a local conservation site, so that the wetlands could be preserved.
The village council held a meeting with the Taitung branch of the Society of Wilderness and the Taitung Wild Bird Society to discuss how to protect the area, village council chairman Lin Chin-te (林金德) said, adding that a joint group from the three organizations would be visiting the wetlands today.
The goal of the visit is to inspect whether water from the wetlands spills into farmland to the north and affects farming, an issue that had caused disputes among local residents, Lin said.
Photo: Chen Hsien-yi, Taipei Times
Farmers said that water from the wetlands was spilling over to their farmlands, so they dug an outlet to drain the water, but the village said that the wetlands, after months of refilling, had finally returned to a semblance of their former beauty, he added.
The draining of the wetlands caused the deaths of large amounts of fish and shrimp, as well as causing migratory birds to leave, Lin said.
The village hopes to talk with the farmers to find a way to balance the water level in the wetlands, he added.
To that effect, “we are bringing the issue to the attention of the county government and hope that a joint inspection can be undertaken,” he said.
“We hope that through our efforts, the Jhihben Wetlands will be among one of the most important wetlands in the county, and together we should talk about the development and conservation of the wetlands,” he added.
“We have also appealed to legislators whose constituencies are in the county to enlist their help in naming the wetlands an important ecological conservation area,” Lin said.
“If our legislators and government are unwilling to help or take no action, the villagers do not rule out staging protests to help ensure Taitung’s most valuable wetland and ecological system — within the traditional territory of Katratripul Village — is preserved,” Lin added.
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
A total lunar eclipse, an astronomical event often referred to as a “blood moon,” would be visible to sky watchers in Taiwan starting just before midnight on Sunday night, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The phenomenon is also called “blood moon” due to the reddish-orange hue it takes on as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the lunar surface. The only light is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, and its red wavelengths are bent toward the moon, illuminating it in a dramatic crimson light. Describing the event as the most important astronomical phenomenon
BETTER SERVICE QUALITY: From Nov. 10, tickets with reserved seats would only be valid for the date, train and route specified on the ticket, THSRC said Starting on Nov. 10, high-speed rail passengers with reserved seats would be required to exchange their tickets to board an earlier train. Passengers with reserved seats on a specific train are currently allowed to board earlier trains on the same day and sit in non-reserved cars, but as this is happening increasingly often, and affecting quality of travel and ticket sales, Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) announced that it would be canceling the policy on Nov. 10. It is one of several new measures launched by THSRC chairman Shih Che (史哲) to improve the quality of service, it said. The company also said
RSS