KUALA LUMPUR, June 27 — The Dewan Rakyat was told today that out of 1,488 aged trees inspected in the capital since 2019, 173 have been cut down.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Federal Territories) Dr Zaliha Mustafa said the assessment was carried out by the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL), and continuous inspections will be conducted on aged trees.
“To reflect DBKL’s commitment, 21 contractors were appointed on June 15, 2024, for the regular maintenance of shade trees, and each contractor must provide an arborist, a specialist in tree inspection, to assess the health and mitigation actions for the trees,” she said during Ministers’ Question Time.
She was replying to a question from Zahir Hassan (PH-Wangsa Maju) on measures to ensure trees under DBKL’s supervision and on private premises comply with guidelines to prevent endangerment to the public.
For tree maintenance, she said according to DBKL records, from January to June, maintenance was carried out on 22,283 trees.
Dr Zaliha said DBKL issued 65 notifications regarding risky trees on private properties, based on public complaints from 2021 to last May.
Answering Zahir’s question about data on injury and accidents due to fallen trees in Kuala Lumpur, she said there have been 14 such cases, with nine resulting in injuries and five resulting in deaths, from 2017 to 2024.
She said out of those, three cases are still being investigated or in court, six cases were dismissed as the accidents occurred outside of DBKL’s jurisdiction, and the remaining five were settled by insurance companies.
— Bernama
