The errant landowners have cleared the hill 150m downwards from the summit towards a park, with concrete-paved roads wide enough to take in two cars, with durian and fruit saplings dotting hill contours.

A total of 16ha of land, or about the size of 15 football fields, had been cleared at the top.

It is 10 times more than the infamous Bukit Botak clearing in 2013, which happened to be on the same hill range, but at a different site.

The Penang Island City Council (MBPP) said the landowners were planning to set up a fruit farm there.

MBPP said work began earlier this year, peaking at the start of the movement control order. A notice to stop work was first issued in March, with two others issued in July, but these were ignored, it said.

FMT had earlier reported the arrest of eight workers at the site for violating the MCO in April.

Work stops after 24-hour checks by MBPP

MBPP, in a site visit today, revealed that work finally stopped after council officers were put on around-the-clock duty from Aug 24.

The city council’s engineering department director, Rajendran P Anthony, said the landowners then sent a request for planning permission on Sept 1.

Rajendran said the earthworks were carried out illegally and the council had yet to consider what to do with the built-up site.

“Any such earthworks needs prior permission from the council.”

He said the same landowners were fined RM10,000 in 2015 for illegally clearing a different part of Bukit Relau, not far away from the current site.

“We will be initiating a legal suit against the landowners soon,” he said.

Checks by FMT today showed the site was adjacent to the infamous Bukit Relau, or the 2013 “Bukit Botak” site, which was illegally cleared that year.

While the 2013 Bukit Botak was directly visible by motorists from the Penang Bridge, the newly cleared site was hidden from sight as it was behind the earlier cut hill facing Paya Terubong.

In April, the Department of Environment found evidence of open burning at the site, with felled trees and other rubbish set ablaze, believed to be carried out by those clearing the site.

The site is accessible through the Ashley Green housing area in Bukit Gambier, with an unpaved road on one end leading to a gravel path. From the hill’s shoulder, a 30ft-wide concrete road has been paved about 1km up to the summit.

A Penang government source told FMT the farmers were on the hilltop during the MCO as they believed they had approval from the state agriculture department.

“When the police caught them, the owners of the farm showed letters saying they were given clearance to carry out farming activities,” the government official said.

Approval obtained from agriculture ministry?

It is also believed that the owners claimed they had permission to carry out farming by a federal ministry.

In April, FMT reported that two letters, including one from the southwest district agricultural office, dated Feb 20, said the durian farmers wanted to plant “various types of premium, cloned durian varieties” on two plots of land there.

The letter, signed by an agricultural officer, said the farmers were free to carry out planting activities so long as they met the “durian planting on hill slope” rules set out.

The other letter, said to be from an official of the agriculture and food industries ministry, dated March 22, gave an “exemption” to the farmers to carry out work under the MCO, as they were part of the “food supply chain”.

A Penang government source said that durian farms were permitted 76m above sea level (hill land) under the Penang Structure Plan (PSP) or the state’s town planning blueprint.

Penang Hills Watch had said land clearing at the hill had begun as early as 2013, with access roads to the site built over the years.

It said it was told by MBPP that the land clearing was not approved and that a warning letter was issued to the landowner over “mitigation works” in September 2013.

It also said a new clearing, covering 7ha, had been spotted near the first site.