I refer to the latest Malaysiakini site, Komunitikini .

I am glad that efforts are being made to work community awareness on the importance of protecting fauna and flora in the Klang Valley.

I sincerely hope the Majlis Bandaraya Petaling Jaya (MBPJ) which is cited as a partner in the scheme of environmental protection would not limit its environment protection strategy to only designated protected forests.

The protection should be mainstreamed in whatever guidelines, policies, administration etc in MBPJ itself to ensure that patches of greenery in residential areas are offered the same protection.

I make this proposal because in of the last couple of days this week I saw that a piece of wooded plot near the Kelana Jaya LRT station at the corner of SS4C/4 and SS4C/1 is being cleared of all its trees and bushes.

Everything was cleared!

I am most distressed as I am sure that this very small patch of dense foliage affords protection to a variety of wild animals in and around Kelana Jaya.

I say this because I have seen fruit bats roosting under the eaves of residences in SS4C. I have seen in the early evenings, civet cats scampering on the roofs of houses and telephone wires. There are at certain times of the year when beautiful migratory bee-eaters (birds) rest on television aerials in the late afternoons.

I have not seen these at SS5 for a long time because the wooded areas around the the SS5 houses (between SS6/3 and the Damasara-Puchong Highway) were levelled after BN wrested the area from DAP many years ago. I did see monkeys being displaced when these stretches were levelled for 'development' in the 1980s and 1990s.

I sincerely hope the Pakatan Rakyat government would ensure that green patches, the green lungs, however little they may be will remain unmolested for these small wild creatures. I have hesitated from feeding the civet cats because that would be the end of the 'natural' in our already hostile neighbourhoods.