THEY are already feeling squeezed in by the airports, the swanky bungalows and upscale shops that have sprung up around the Kuala Langat north forest.

And now they are being told that the forest they call home is slated to be cut down by the Selangor  government.

Although their homes and farms will be not be affected, the 2,000 Orang Asli from four villages will not stand by and see the forest bulldozed to make way for yet another “mixed development project”.

“If the forest dies then our future and that of our children is bleak,” Raman Pahat, tok batin of Kampung Pulau Kempas, told the media in an Orang Asli village in Bukit Cheeding.

Raman was among the elders from the Temuan tribe who gathered to launch a campaign against the Selangor government’s plans to de-gazette 930ha of the Kuala Langat North forest reserve.

De-gazetting the peat swamp forest is the first step towards ending its protected status so that it can be cut down and the land developed.

The forest straddles a western stretch of the Elite Highway between Putra Heights in the north and Gamuda Cove in the south. Cyberjaya and Putrajaya lie opposite the forest across the highway.

Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari said his administration wants to develop the forest because 40% of it is degraded and a forest fire hazard – a claim disputed by civil society groups.

Amirudin has also rejected claims by the Temuan that the forest is part of their communal lands.

The Temuan say their claim to the forest goes back to 1927 when the forest was first gazetted for its protection.

However, Amirudin has said that the state will set aside 423ha of land which is currently occupied by the 2,000 Temuan.

Raman said some of the Temuan were already displaced in the past to make way for the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

“These families are now staying here in the village and they have nowhere else to go if they take away our forest.”

“When Gamuda Cove was being built they bulldozed over the graves of our ancestors. Our ancestors’ bones have been dug up and we can’t honour them anymore.”

The four Temuan villages are banding together with an alliance of green groups to stop the forest’s destruction.

They have started a campaign to send as many objection letters to the Selangor Forestry Department to stop the degazettal of the forest.

Another Temuan villager Tonjoi Pipis said the forest was an important source of income for the community as it provided herbs and raw materials with which they made crafts to sell.

“The forest is also important for the local environment. Because it is peat swamp it helps controls floods in the area. Without it, the whole of Kuala Langat and even Klang will experience very bad floods in the future.”

The 423ha the government sets aside for the Temuan will be meaningless if the forest is destroyed anyway.

“The forest is important for our cultural and religious practices. Without it we are doomed.” – February 24, 2020.