Saturday, 30 Jan 2021 05:03 PM MYT
In land-scarce and densely populated Singapore, the Government will have to continue balancing the needs of development and conservation as part of its long-term planning processes, said National Development Minister Desmond Lee. — Illustration by Anam
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SINGAPORE, Jan 30 — Over the past decade, Mr Jimmy Tan has seen lush greenery in Singapore being taken down one by one.
In 2012, Bidadari cemetery, a safe haven for endangered birds, was cleared for a new Housing and Development Board (HDB) town.In 2016, the HDB announced plans to build a “forest town” in Tengah which, according to the Nature Society, would eliminate over 90 per cent of the original forest there.The same year, the verdant 30-hectare Lentor Forest near Yio Chu Kang was razed for private housing.The “final straw” for Mr Tan, a 48-year-old Bukit Batok resident, was when he found out in July last year — after a public feedback exercise by HDB — that there were plans to develop parts of the Bukit Batok Hillside Park area into Build-to-Order (BTO) flats.