In an earlier press statement, JTC Corporation said that they discovered that the forest was mistakenly cleared on 13 January 2021.
That was when all clearing works were halted and a stern warning was issued to the contractor.
However, satellite images have since revealed that the forest clearing started as early as 1 March last year, refuting the claims that the forest clearing only began in December 2020.
The footage showed that work was halted between March and August due to the Covid-19 pandemic and further progress was only made from September 2020 onwards.
By 25 January 2021, 11 football fields worth of forest were cleared.
A JTC spokesman said on 16 February 2021 that they only discovered the mistake on 13 January 2021, after images of the deforestation was posted online on 14 February 2021, which prompted JTC’s response.
Top image source: Brice Li Facebook