I refer to the letter Destruction at Bkt Kiara - in the name of the King?

I, too, write in response to the recent excavation work done at Bukit Kiara, one of KL's last green lungs. Over the past few years, I've grown to love the great outdoors and all the activities and sports associated with it.

I've done rock climbing, mountain biking, the usual trekking/camping and hopefully will progress to adventure racing soon. I feel Malaysia has a huge yet undeveloped potential to both grow and benefit from outdoor sports

We first, however, must start the right way, as where one uses nature to ones’ benefit, one must respect it. One good example would be not to throw rubbish while hiking and leave nature in its natural state.

Along the same lines, the recent excavation and widening of trails at Bukit Kiara is like throwing mounds of rubbish on the trail, blatantly. Where one has the option to carve a nice track while maintaining tree cover and the surrounding foliage, Kuala Lumpur instead brought an excavator and started digging muddy nightmares.

With no tree cover and the trails being wide and exposed to Malaysia's wet weather, the trails will see damage in no time. Soon, they will be disused and become another scar on the landscape and all DBKL's efforts would have been wasted along with taxpayer's money.

So how are we to climb on the world's stage of outdoor sports if we can't even learn to take care of our own backyard? How are we to promote eco-tourism when a simple affair of trail maintenance can't even be done right? How are we to turn into a First World country when we can't even get the basics right?

DBKL has been fairly competent compared to other municipal authorities and I would rate them among the best in Malaysia. Too bad they are now tarnished in my eyes.