AFTER a standoff of more than a month, tension returned to the Orang Asli settlement in Ulu Geruntum, Gopeng, when contractors armed with chainsaws and riding tractors turned up to tear down nine huts built on the proposed site for mini hydro dams.

Fearing that their ancestral land would be encroached on, members of the Semai tribe on Sunday set up a blockade at the entrance leading to the huts, where their families are staying, after finding out that contractors had started laying construction materials nearby last week.