TAIPING, Sept 23 — Perak must make clear that a cable car system will not be built on Bukit Larut, residents here said after renewed interest was reportedly expressed by some firms.
Responding to a Chinese vernacular daily’s report asserting of discussions between three companies and local councillors, the residents noted that state tourism and culture executive councillor Tan Kar Hing ruled out any such project last month.
“We were happy when Tan said the government was not interested in proceeding with the project. But then it came up again, like it does every four to five years,” resident’s spokesman Ainol Farila Ahmed told a press conference today.
The group repeated concerns about the project’s ramifications on the local environment from both its construction and the projected 500,000 people it could bring to the area.
She said the tourists will require ancillary facilities that would cause additional environmental damage at great risk to the steep hill.
“We want this to be put to rest. The damage this will create will be more than the profits anyone can make.”
The residents insist the hill’s unique flora and fauna include endemic, endangered and vulnerable species of birds, insects and mammals that must be protected.
These species include helmeted hornbills, felines like clouded leopards and leopard cats, as well as an array of highland and lowland birds.
Frequent thunderstorms in the area also made a cable car possibly dangerous, they said.
“You’re going to end up with hundreds of people stranded up the hill if something goes wrong,” said Liew Suet Fun, who runs the Nest, the hill’s only accommodation.
Ainol urged the state government to gazette Bukit Larut as a state park and a national heritage site to prevent any further threats of excessive development.
She also called for a holistic management plan that would plan out the best measures to conserve and protect the hill.
“Bukit Larut cannot be replaced or relocated. Once the habitat is gone for the flora and fauna, they will be gone. You cannot bring them back and you cannot bring the hill back.”
