REFLECTIVE ESSAY by LIM JIAN JUN

The greatest foe of the beautiful nature is ironically but no doubt the most intelligent specie on Earth – Homosapiens. With built environment and human communities, human has demanding control over the nature and manipulate it with greed as they seen the nature as the beneficial source in terms of monetary values. The eyes of man will never content, but rather be ignorant about the damage done to the Mother Nature. The moment when we all realized it, it is most probably the time when the worst disastrous natural catastrophes kill life of millions in a swept. And only that time, it was all too late.

A trip to Taman Negara in Pahang and an opportunity to merge into the woods gives realization of how important is the nature in the working of balanced ecosystem. Nature encircles life elements with water, earth, woods, light and ores, together they play the essential yet intrinsic roles for plants to grow restlessly and for animals to live in as a habitat. By observing and having the real experience to immerse in the nature, it gives more than words to describe the learning values through sensations and experiences gained first handed.

It was a blessed to be able to witness the legendary, near to extinction mammal, the Tapir which used to be appeared on primary textbooks. Its huge body showed up just right in front of the crowds, with its small steps getting closer in a hand reachable distance. It was truly an unexplainable moment to see the little intimacy sparkles in between human and the nature. The scene was pretty much like, answering to a real nature call. How fascinating, is it not? Followed by the sight hunting trail for night glowing scorpions and snakes in the dark gave this spine-tingling excitement, like any chances of having them fall off from trees and onto our body or sneaks across our legs… The only thing I felt disappointed was, the trail ended too soon.

Figure 2 : Glowing Scorpion Hiding in Tree Bark

Photography by Lim Jian Jun

Figure 1: Tapir at the Resort

Photography by Lim Jian Jun

The morning air would never been this fresh and chilly compared to the one back in city. The morning dawn is always imperishably beautiful, celebrated with the rhythmic chirpings of birds and insects, echoed in the woods. It was indeed an anticipating way to kick start the second day. The guided tour with the knowledgeable ranger was a trip full of surprises and tips of survival in the woods. There were “magic” tricks turning an ordinary leaf into a mosquito rebellion liquids and antiseptics to accompany us along the journey into the deep forest. Standing tall on the canopy walks triumphed the fright of height, and brought us to a new level where breeze crossed through the cheek, trying to catch my attention to view out of the trees. The views were unquestionably breathtaking. The sky was so close and so blue, the green has never been this green to me. My soul was moved in that instant. Till then I hesitantly moved my steps to the end of this trail.

The peak of the day was the rapid shooting races along the strong streams, pushing our way to clasp to the nature’s bosom, and into the shelter of the indigenous people in the forest. There was demonstration made by the villagers about their hunting as well as survival skills. It is observable that the villagers have impressive adaptability and strong bonds with the Mother Nature. But what holds us back was the cold glance from the villagers with an unwelcoming vibe in the air. Sad but true that the visiting have made us the intruders and invade into their territory and interrupting their daily routines. All those were merely for the sake of goods trading from the outside in return, the villagers might have been living like this for quite sometimes and even became acquaintance for them.

Not just that, this incident led me to ponder about how human activities has brought disturbance to the tranquility of nature, bringing damages to preserved forest while getting back to the nature. The jungle walkway put an ease to the visitors during visiting, but meanwhile exploitation was inevitably required to construct the canopy and footpaths in the woods, cutting down trees and destroying the shelters for animals. Noise pollution brought by the crowds has broken the peace of the nature, disrupting animal activities. Rapid shooting was indeed fun, but despite of that the gasoline generated mechanism had released invisible chemical contaminated gases into the atmosphere. The existing structures such as the chalets and the resorts are each installed with green gases emitting air conditioners. And that made me question myself how environmental friendly it is a preserved forest can be with all these phenomena happening within?

This reminds me of the future development planning of a country as it will never stop and with just a blink of an eye, cold heavy dwellings are built everywhere, occupying the green patches with occurrence of heat island due to the high emission of green gases in the city. Would you imagine if the development keeps going on with so little solution taken to face the intensified catastrophes and environmental issues when time goes by? Now it is a doubt of

Figure 3 : A Glimpse of Nature

Photography by Lim Jian Jun

having a good quality of life with such developments, not just affecting the plants, animals and the environment, mankind will be greatly influenced as well.

I personally think that all individuals should have be looking for a wiser development where civilization can still take place with minimal impact to the environment, same goes to how mankind can appreciate the nature without putting it at risk. This trip to Taman Negara has never fail to inspire me and even to challenge myself to make changes to the world, as one of the many to shape a better and a greener future.