The Once Pristine Bukit Enggang in Hulu Langat Is Now a Dumping Ground As Well As a Logging and Sand-Mining Hub
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Styling your Intimate way wallpaper to do good Apps to help you Bra maker enlists the customise your help of celebs in its home screen in campaign in aid of many different Breast Cancer Welfare ways. >12 Association. >23 Wednesday 13 November 2013 thestar.com.my/metro/central Customer Service: 1300 88 7827 CENTRAL Sharks alive at Beach Metro Club >20 Conditions going The once pristine Bukit Enggang in Hulu Langat is now a dumping ground as well as a logging and sand-mining hub. And the authorities have yet to take action. >2&3 downhill Nature ripped A view of the deforestation happening on the slopes of Bukit Enggang. — By LOW BOON TAT / THE STAR NEWs starMetro, Wednesday 13 november 2013 By YIP YOKE TENG [email protected] Star Metro info Base Photos by LOW BOON TAT and AZHAR MAHFOF GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT Arkib NegArA 03-6209 0606 T WAS once a forest reserve but bANk NegArA 03-2698 8044 was divided into hundreds of Ibungalow lots and giveN to civil bukit AmAN 03-2031 9999/2066 3333 Customs 03-7806 7200 servants. SixteeN years on, the pic- Fire & resCue 03-8888 0036 ture of bungalows scattered on the immigrAtioN 03-2095 5077 hill has Not materialised, instead iNCome tAx 1-300-88-3010 Bukit Enggang has become a dump- JAbAtAN AlAm sekitAr 03-8885 8200 ing ground. JAkim 03-8886 4000 The secluded hill straddling Hulu JPA 03-8885 3000 Langat, besides being a massive JPN (kl) 03-6203 7777 dump site, is also the area for activi- JPN (PJ) 03-7957 9573 ties such as logging and saNd miN- JPJ 03-8886 6400 ing. kerJArAyA 03-2691 9011 Bukit Enggang is out-of-bouNds to “uNauthorised vehicles”. The entry klse -bursA m’siA 03-2026 5099 point is blocked with a boom gate mANPower DePt -Jtr 03-8886 5000 and is closely guarded throughout meteorology 03-7967 8000 the day. miDA 03-2267 3633 Two ‘No ENtry’ signs with rifles mimos 03-8996 5000 drawn oN them serve as sterN warn- Perkeso 03-4257 5755 ing to outsiders but lorries laden Pos mAlAysiA 03-2267 2267 with sand and rubbish are often reg oF busiNess 03-4043 0811 spotted entering and exiting the reg oF ComPANy 03-4043 3366 area. Dumping ground: Bukit enggang, turned from a forest reserve into a government bungalow cluster that did not materialise, royAl Customs 03-6201 6088 Joggers are the only outsiders has now been reduced to a ‘popular’ dump site. sirim 03-5544 6000 allowed to eNter in the morniNg and soCso 03-4253 5320 they are mostly from the Nearby Bandar Sungai Long and Bandar EPF Mahkota Cheras. They like to walk HeAD oFFiCe 03-2694 6566 on the steep roads for a good work- the dumping hill bANDAr 03-2694 6051 out and eNjoy a good view of Hulu CAll CeNtre: 03-8922 6000 Langat. CHerAs 03-9200 3304 However, the walk is actually a gombAk 03-6185 0780 sorry experience as the roads are iN area earmarked for bungalow houses Worrying state kAJANg 03-8922 6000 bad shape, with potholes and sink- on bukit enggang now a sorry sight StarMetro attempted to contact the kePoNg 03-8922 6000 ing oN both sides of the tarred road. landowners of Bukit Enggang klANg 03-3325 1626 In some locations, the piles of rub- through a Facebook page put up to PetAliNg JAyA 03-8922 6000 bish stretch as far as the eye caN There are electricity poles along now filled up with stagnaNt water gather them. Calls to the two tele- PuDu 03-2078 6788 see. the roads but the cables are all sto- and dotted with litter and mosquito phone Numbers listed went unan- setAPAk 03-41499499 What used to be bungalow plots len. Drains are badly brokeN due to larvae. swered and the page was later sHAH AlAm 03-8922 6000 giveN to the civil servants are all soil erosion and a building that looks About an hour’s walk from the removed. covered iN thick undergrowth. Only like a water pumphouse has beeN entry point, a huge saNd miNing site While No one lives inside Bukit HOsPITALs one house caN be found here and it is abandoned. can be spotted in a secluded area, Enggang curreNtly, its ravaged con- tuN HusseiN oNN (eye) 03-7956 1511 located right next to the entry One can see a pond at one point with no sigN indicating they are AssuNtA 03-7680 7000 point. but the locatioN used to be a road, licensed to carry out the activities. > sEE NEXT PAGE uNiversity HosPitAl (ummC) 03-7949 4422 gHkl 03-2692 1044 HeArtsCAN 03-2287 0988 iNstitut JANtuNg 03-2617 8200 kAJANg meDiCAl 03-8739 7070/7077 selANgAr meDiCAl 03-5543 1111 selAyANg HosPitAl 03-6126 3333 seNtosA 03-4043 7166 RADIO/TAXI sERVICE PubliC CAb 03-6259 2020 ComFort 03-8024 0507 klteksi 017-2733372 rADio tAxi 03-9221 7600 sAuJANA 03-2162 8888 suPerCAb 1-300-888-294 suNligHt 03-9057 5757 teleCAb 03-9221 2828 CityliNe 03-9222 2828 teletAxi 03-9131 8080 wirA CAb 03 2144 3630 POLICE sTATIONs PetAliNg JAyA HQ 03-7966 2222 bukit AmAN HQ 03-2266 2222 DAmANsArA utAmA 03-7722 2222 seA PArk 03-7875 1382 selANgor PoliCe HQ 03-5514 5222 sHAH AlAm 03-5520 2222 sg buloH 03-6156 1222 kotA DAmANsArA 03-6140 4538 tAmAN tuN Dr ismAil 03-7728 6222 sg wAy 03-7875 2222 AmPANg 03-4289 7222 briCkFielDs 03-9051 6222 CHerAs 03-9145 2222 DANg wANgi 03-2600 2222 Laid bare: Bare patches like this are a common sight inside bukit enggang, Hulu Langat. Executive Editor Deputy Editors Assistant Editors METRO EDITORIAL ADVERTISING CENTRAL Brian Martin EddiE Chua aluOSiES FranCiS Tel: (03) 7967 1388 Tel: (03) 7966 8388 Editor SaM ChEOnG PatriCK FOnG Fax: (03) 7955 4039 ViCKY OOi V.P.SuJata ESthEr Chandran Email: [email protected] METRO CLASSIFIED SiMrit Kaur 15 Jalan 16/11 46350 Petaling Jaya (03) 7967 2020 JaCOBuS raJ Articles, contributions and photos that are accepted for publication will be paid and copyright becomes the property of Star Publications (M) Bhd. thestar.com.my/metro/central www.facebook.com/starmetro twitter.com/thestarmetro StarMetro, Wednesday 13 november 2013 NewS Rampant sand mining and logging activities > FROM pReviOuS pAGe Chronology of events in Bukit Enggang , Hulu Langat dition is of concern to about 3,000 villagers of Sungai Serai, located at Between 1996 and 1997: The Selangor government divided Bukit Enggang, the foot of the hill. a former forest reserve in Hulu Langat, into 600 plots of 0.4ha each and handed Sungai Serai village head, them over to civil servants from the police, army and Anti-Corruption Agency. Zainuddin Mohamad Tasar, said vil- Sept 2002: A newspaper’s visit to the hill showed that plots of land were lagers had noticed that the once established and numbered, tarred roads and electric poles built to prepare the thick forest near the top of the hill area for residential use. had become sparse. May 2003: Gombak district officer Ramli Mahmud cited the case of Bukit “We only suspected that the log- ging has been going on for Enggang in his defence of the act to give land to government officers an issue months when we finally noticed the raised by the Opposition in light of plots in Dengkil dan Kampung Labu Lanjut bare patches and truck trails in the given to several state exco members. area. June 2004: Landowners of Bukit Enggang highlighted their predicament to a “It dawned on us then that local daily that they could not build any property due to damaged roads and there were lorries laden with logs infrastructure. One of them named Basil Yusof Mohamed Yusof said he bought and sand plying our road more the land from an ex ACA officer for RM180,000. The landowners claimed that frequently. They are polluting the air and damaging the roads,” he they had paid about RM65,000 to the District Land Office to build the said. infrastructure. He said the area where trees were It was learned through them that SAP Air Hitam Properties Sdn Bhd felled was supposed to be a buffer (a company under Kumpulan Hartanah Selangor Berhad) was the company zone between Bukit Enggang and engaged by the District Land Office to build the infrastructure, and the job was Sungai Serai. assigned to Pidalmarine Engineering Sdn Bhd. “I have made complaints to the April 2009: An illegal sand mining site was uncovered inside Bukit Enggang. authority but there has been no response so far. The villagers are Feb 2010: Six people, including an assistant director of the Hulu Langat District worried especially since our village, and Land Office and a police inspector, were charged in the Sessions Court in stretching over 3km, has been hit by relation to a sand smuggling operation which led to 38 people being arrested by floods at least once every year,” he the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission the month before. said. Dusun Tua assemblyman Razaly Dec 2010: A Malay daily reported that the Muslim burial reserve measuring Hassan said following the com- 72ha in Bukit Enggang was badly damaged by sand mining. The damage was plaints, he had written to the Land worrying even though a state exco member later clarified that the plots were Office to find out the status of the privately owned. plots of land but that he was still March 2011: Selangor Forestry Department exposed an illegal logging site in waiting for a reply.