Bukit Botak, an epitome of many more to come? – Rexy Prakash Chacko

A picture of ongoing development at Bukit Relau taken by the author. – Pic courtesy of Rexy Prakash Chacko, February 4, 2016. Once, a ride into the Penang island along the Bridge would have been such a pleasant one, with the sight of a bustling metropolis at the edge of Penang Strait, ever guarded by a backdrop of lush green hills. Penang as we used to know it was a paradise where the city, the beaches and the hills coexisted. But is today's Penang still the same one we once knew? Take a ride today along the Penang Bridge and as you approach the island, you'll be greeted by Penang's infamous Bukit Relau a.k.a Bukit Botak. Its once verdant green slopes shaven off, in the name of development. If one feels that this is an eyesore and instead opts for the newer Second Link for better views, be not excited, for you'll be greeted by a similar scene of destruction eating up the hills of Batu Maung. Hill slope clearing is almost ubiquitous in today's Penang, and wherever one stands on the island, patches of brown, bulldozed earth are not too far away.

 In spite of rules and regulations, protests and forums , we are still losing our hills. Bukit Relau was followed by Bukit Laksamana and recently the hill slopes near Penang National Park. It is a well known fact that under the Penang Structure Plan, no housing project and development can occur on slopes above 76 meters with a gradients more than 25 degrees. In spite of this rigid policy in place, why has hill development and clearing all the more intensified?

Blow the dust off the surface and one can see that there are finer details to this policy that most are not aware of. One of such is the "Special Project" allowance. Under this allowance if a project meets "stringent controls in compliance with hill land development and approvals under EIA and the State Planning Committee" it can proceed.  It is this clause which has been manipulated to accommodate so called low density housing in rezoned hill land, enabling clearing to take place in Bukit Relau and many of the other hills.

One can be baffled as to who would want a mansion perched on top of a hill like Bukit Relau, so high and steep, that day to day existence is at the mercy of Mother Nature. In fact, this hill is almost a 1000 feet higher than the maximum height stipulated under policy guidelines and it comes to show that it is time that our policies have to evolve in an ever changing and ever denser Penang. With disasters like the Highland Towers and the Bukit Antarabangsa Landslide not too distant in our memory, it is also time to ask, if low density housing, yet alone any housing or development should be approved on hills.

In many places across Penang the damage has already been done, with the grotesque Bukit Relau peak being the forefront of what could go wrong. Yet in spite of the public anger, many of these places continue to remain the same or in fact get even worse. Aerial pictures and a site inspection of Bukit Relau can clearly show that over the last two years, the bald patch did not get smaller but in fact got bigger, with more clearing happening under the pretext of mitigation. In the last six months, a paved road started making its way up the hill and on closer inspection at the foothill, this road looks more like a highway. Apart from this road, parts of the slopes were cemented and sloped, creating more spaces of barren,  treeless expanse. The argument put forth by the developer is that this road is necessary for mitigation work but it raises the question, why would mitigation work require such a wide road and what will happen to this road once the "mitigation works" are completed in June 2016?

Moving on further, if the mitigation work on Bukit Relau would involve tree planting, what sort of trees, native or non native, would be planted, bearing in mind that this location was once virgin jungle?  As more questions boil over, so does the public anger over MBPP's handling of this issue. With little explanation and justification provided to the public, it comes to no surprise as to why last week's site visit to Bukit Relau became a tense and heated affair. It would be apt if the developer and the MBPP engage the public, environmental and civil society groups like the Malaysian Nature Society, The Penang Forum and the government's very own Forestry Department in not just open discussions to explain what is happening, but fundamentally engage them in being part of the solution. While it would have been apt if this was done earlier, it is never too late as a major phase of the mitigation work, tree planting, has not taken place yet.

Keep in mind, if the people of Penang are given a chance to contribute and speak out, they are ever ready to lend a helping hand and put in ideas on how best to preserve their hills. Let transparency and accountability be core credentials and let environmental and social concerns take a more central role in future developments. Bukit Relau today is an embodiment of what went disastrously wrong when state policies were manipulated, but if we band together and work for its restoration, this hill could become a beacon of how civil society and the state stood up and championed the environmental cause. Let us choose to restore and conserve our natural heritage for the generations to come. – February 4, 2016.

*Rexy Prakash Chacko reads The Malaysian Insider.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.