Three Thousand Island regency residents were reportedly caught illegally collecting beach sand on Karang Lebar Island on Wednesday.
They were released later the same day.
The residents were caught during a three day joint patrol by Thousand Islands Public Order Agency, Transportation Agency, Fisheries, Agriculture and Food Security Agency (KPKP) officials and police and military officers to find cases of illegal sand mining in the regency.
Thousand Islands Public Order Agency operational head Sugiri said the officers told the suspects to stop collecting sand in protected areas.
“We scolded them so they would not damage the environment, especially the sea ecosystem in the Thousand Islands regency. This is also to enforce Bylaw No. 8/2007 on public order,” Sugiri said on Wednesday, as reported by wartakota.tribunnews.com.
He said the residents were let off with a warning because they had not collected the sand for commercial purposes.
“If they wanted [the sand] for commercial purposes we would have arrested them because that is not allowed. But for personal uses it’s okay [to collect sand] but not too much,” Sugiri said. (ami)
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