Keep Bukit Kiara clean, green and refreshing

I LIVE near the Bukit Kiara Park. If God had granted me one wish in my lifetime, that wish would be to live next to a spacious green lung and clean natural forest.

And yes, my dream has sort of come true. Like hundreds of other residents in my neighbourhood, I walk up the hill every other day and enjoy the cool fresh air and relish a good workout.

The Bukit Kiara Park not only provides a great place to exercise but also for children to play, families to gather, neighbours to meet and stressed-out city folks and nature lovers to enjoy a peaceful retreat.

Aside from enjoying a good workout at this green lung, its tranquil and pleasant setting is home to many wild plants, birds, monkeys and other animals.

Thanks to the good work of the Trails Association of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, which builds and maintains mountain bike trails all around Bukit Kiara, the public can now go on a number of interesting jungle trails while enjoying the beauty of nature.

All of this would mean nothing if efforts to keep Bukit Kiara clean and green are not given serious attention.

If left unchecked, Bukit Kiara will slowly become a rubbish dump.

Along the paved roads, dustbins are often toppled by the monkeys and rubbish gets strewn all over.

Hardly a soul would put things right and when I do, I only get cold stares.

The cleanliness of the area around the guardhouses should be the responsibility of the guards.

Many a time, when the monkeys topple the big trash bins, the security guards simply ignore the scattered rubbish and pretend that they don’t notice the toppled bin. The guards should be conscious of keeping their environment clean by playing their part or be directed to do so by the authorities.

While the authorities do collect this trash once in a while, this is not so along the jungle trails.

As more and more walkers, hikers and cyclists sweat it out on this increasingly popular hill, especially during the weekends, the jungle trails are now besieged with an increasing amount of trash.

It appears that some of them do not seem to care about keeping the hill clean. They take the easy way out by dumping their rubbish along the trails.

Empty plastic bottles and bags, umbrellas and jogging paraphernalia are discarded and scattered all over.

Every time I hike up the Bukit Kiara jungle trails, my heart sinks when I see plastic bottles strewn along the trails. They have become an eyesore.

Bukit Kiara will lose its charm if such attitudes are not changed.

I would like to appeal to all hikers, walkers and cyclists using the jungle trails to be more responsible by refraining from throwing any trash on the trail but instead take their trash out especially the empty mineral water bottles.

To get rid of the existing trash, they could do all of us a great favour by picking up one piece of trash each time they go on their hike or cycling trip.

The message to be internalised by all: Please leave your footprints, not your trash.

DR POLA SINGH

Kuala Lumpur