Showing posts with label road. Show all posts
Showing posts with label road. Show all posts

Friday, May 16, 2008

RoadKills - It really KILLS ok

How often do you travel on the road in Malaysia?
In Malaysia, the rate of roadkills is alarming. Twenty years ago, roadkills were not many. But today, on a trip from Penang to Kelantan, one cannot help to see the pitiful roadkills. They range from rare animals to common one.
So much anger and publicity were generated when about 20 youths died in the National Service.
A week journey from Penang to Kelantan and back already claimed 10 animals - but nobody care a hood about them.
Our animals are migrating! Migrating because ....
Forests and jungles are being logged.
Roads being built in the middle of their homes.
Food are diminshing because human are destroying their habitats.
Proachers are separating their mates.
Global warming caused by human hasten the migration.
Are we not aware? Are we not care?
We have the power to do something but we choose to ignore.
We can build passages under the highway.
We can put more signs on the road.
Our roads can bypass pristine jungles but we are greedy because there are timbers.
Just because animals are animals and they are not their children, the lawmakers couldn't careless. They are creation of God and shouldn't we care for them too?

A 8-foot Python


Mongoose


Slow Loris

Monitor Lizard



Civet Cat

An unidentified snake



Wild boar


Masked Palm Civet



Another Masked Palm Civet


Bat


“Always be kind to dumb animals. Cruelty is one of the most hateful vices, and matured nations are trying to put an end to it. When people are cruel to animals they will be cruel to one another. As human nature ripens, there will be more kindness, sympathy and pity. Some horses and dogs are worthy of our respect as well as of our kindness. Some dogs are more sensitive and intelligent than some men. They have character, but they are handicapped by dumbness. If your dog could talk, you would be surprised at what he knows”.- Herbert N. Casson

Monday, October 08, 2007

"It's Built On Private Land"

Moniot Road is named after a Frenchman, Michel Jules Moniot, who surveyed it between 1846 and 1855. Penang Hill has been a popular holiday retreat for the Mat Sallehs. Before the furnicular train (and later the Jeep Road), the only access up the hill was by horseback or by sedan chairs carried by coolies through Moniot Road. Later, the road was then tarred but then it was only for horse drawn carriages. It was abandoned when furnicular train was servicable in 1926.
This part of Moniot Road has always be a motorcycle lane since I came to know the trail in 1985. This road could not be suitable for modern day vehicles. Suddenly, sometime in Aug 2007, it was bulldozed. Picture below.

"It's built on private land", they said. How to believe if there is a signboard to prove otherwise?
Aug 2007

Oct 2007 - then they cemented it.


The Consequences You See Today


This tree is counting its day... if not for the Forest Reserve signboard, this tree would have long gone....
More consequences of building steep road on hilly terrain in my next chapter. When are they going to learn?