Someone Wants To Cut Off Nam Sang Wai: Academic

Conservationist Lam Chiu-ying on Tuesday alleged that someone is trying to stop people from going to the popular bird watching area in Nam Sang Wai, where a series of fires have been reported over the past couple of weeks.

Lam, who is an adjunct professor at Chinese University's Department of Geography and Resource Management, said the fires are very suspicious as the weather is usually humid around this time of year.

Police have also said that they suspect arson was behind a couple of fires.

He said that the fires have now affected public transport, referring to the fire over the last weekend when a sampan that used to row people across a river to the Yuen Long village was burned down.

Lam said it is too much of a coincidence that these fires are happening at a time during the migratory season and said he hoped that the police will do more to prevent another fire in the ecologically valuable area.

He refused to speculate as to the motive for such actions. "It is very difficult to speculate on things like this," he said. "In the New Territories there could be numerous reasons why things happen."

"But at the moment I think the pieces of evidence when we put them together are pointing towards a kind of mastermind," he said.

Lam told RTHK's Janice Wong that the government should step in to protect areas of high ecological value and there are provisions in the statutes to take over such land.