GEORGE TOWN: The ongoing hill-cutting and upcoming massive reclamation in Penang has incurred the wrath of a group environmental activists.
Pertubuhan Pelindung Khazanah Alam Malaysia (PEKA) president Puan Sri Shariffa Sabrina Syed Akil has called for an immediate halt to overdevelopment at the expense of Mother Nature.
Shariffa Sabrina said the environment degradation had worsened and the NGO sees no reason for the mindless environmental 'rape' to continue.
"The hill-clearing activities have caused the environment in Penang to be in a critical situation.
"The hill-chopping must stop now. Enough is enough.
"It is sad for us to see more bald patches being cleared for development," she told a press conference here yesterday.
Showing the media pictures of the notorious Bukit Relau which earned the moniker of "Bukit Botak" and several other sites, Penang-born Shariffa Sabrina said she was deeply disturbed by the sorry sight of exposed hills statewide.
Stressing on the urgent need to rehabilitate the cleared patches in the hills, Shariffa Sabrina said remedial works must be carried out.
"The stripped hills are obscene and we cannot bear the sights of looking at the bald patches.
"Something must be done immediately to rectify the worsening stripped hill portion immediately," she said.
Asked on the fencing alongside amid the Gurney Drive reclamation, Shariffa Sabrina said the pedestrians walking along the famous beachfront promenade were akin to 'prisoners peering out from their cells'.
She said the natural beauty of Gurney Drive has been marred by the reclamation that made it to look more desolate.
Meanwhile, Shariffa Sabrina said PEKA would hand in a memorandum to the state government to express its concerns about the hill clearing.