Last night while taking the ferry from the mainland to Penang Island, I gazed at Penang Hill. Whereas in the past, the lights at the summit of Bukit Bendera (Flagstaff Hill) would twinkle in the clear night sky, this time other specks of light in the middle of the hill were piercing through the black shroud enveloping the hill after sunset evidence of more hill-slope development or clearing.

At this rate, Penang Hill will soon be transformed into a giant Christmas tree rising from the centre of a fairyland island surrounded by smaller Christmas trees (highrise condos for the wealthy at the sea front, built on reclaimed land). Do we want this sort of hill-clearing and hill-cutting in Penang? Surely, these bald patches are visible from Komtar.

So it is timely that two dozen Penang-based residents associations and civil society groups have signed an open letter to the Yang Di-Pertua of the Majlis Perbandaran Pulau Pinang expressing concern about the degradation of hills in the state.

Call for public forum on the hills of Penang

Dear Yang Di-Pertua Dato Patahiyah bt Ismail

Penang is famed for its hills, beaches (sadly no longer clean) and heritage. Very few places in Malaysia are blessed with this combination of assets. But alas, we residents of Penang are very concerned that our hills are being desecrated right in front of our eyes.

Bald patches are appearing all over the state from the hills on the mainland to Bukit Relau (the most notorious), Balik Pulau and Tanjung Bungah on the island (see Anil Nettos blog posts).

The forests and hills of Penang, besides providing a soothing landscape, cool the morning air that flows down the slopes and ventilates our city. All these are threatened by the wanton clearing of our hills by housing developers and farmers, some done illegally.

We support the Councils recent effort to strengthen its geo-technical division. We call upon the Council to jointly organise a public forum to inform the public what steps are being taken to address this issue.

Some questions the public would like clarified are:

Read more from the original source:
Penang Hill turning into a Christmas tree; 24 NGOs say no more botak hills

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March 9, 2015 at 1:30 am by Mr HomeBuilder
Category: Landscape Hill