What's holding up the Kuala Langat forest regazettement?
It has been almost three months since Selangor yielded to public pressure and agreed to reclassify the Kuala Langat (North) forest complex as a permanent reserve.
However, at the time of writing, the state government has yet to officially do so.
Last month, Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari explained that his administration and Putrajaya will first need to reach a consensus on whether the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) will involve a northern or southern route.
Selangor has long contended that ECRL is...
It has been almost three months since Selangor yielded to public pressure and agreed to reclassify the Kuala Langat (North) forest complex as a permanent reserve.
However, at the time of writing, the state government has yet to officially do so.
Last month, Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari explained that his administration and Putrajaya will first need to reach a consensus on whether the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) will involve a northern or southern route.
Selangor has long contended that ECRL is part of the reason why they excised a portion of the Kuala Langat (North) forest reserve in the first place.
However, an inspection of a Department of Environment-approved southern alignment environmental impact assessment (EIA) report from June 2020 found gaps in this argument.
Southern route involves protected forest
In May this year, the Selangor government quietly excised 536.7ha from the 991.9ha Kuala Langat (North) forest permanent reserve.
Based on a Selangor Forestry Department map (below), the state government had excised the northern half of the reserve.
However, the EIA map (below) shows that the proposed ECRL southern alignment does not traverse through the excised portion.
Instead, the proposed southern route will run parallel with the southernmost corridor of the reserve, which is currently still a protected forest reserve.
This appears inconsistent with Amirudin's claim that a decision on the ECRL is holding up the regazettement process.
It is also inconsistent with his statement that the state government will consider maintaining a "small" portion of the excised area for the proposed ECRL southern alignment.
In a response to Malaysiakini, Amirudin’s office pointed to the menteri besar’s public comments on Nov 11 about the need to resolve the ECRL impasse before any regazettement could be done.
It also indicated a possibility that the ECRL southern alignment had been revised since June 2020, when the EIA report was approved.
However, Malaysiakini understands there have been no official revisions of the southern alignment since then.
Malaysiakini is contacting ECRL project owner Malaysia Rail Link Sdn Bhd for comment.
Southern route sees more forest loss
In October, Malaysiakini reported that the proposed northern ECRL route, which Putrajaya favours, will involve the loss of 11 hectares of forest reserves.
In comparison, the southern ECRL route will involve 2.5 the amount of forest loss - 28.9ha in permanent forest reserves, which equals the size of about 40 football fields.
The bulk of this loss (21.7ha) will be experienced by the Kuala Langat (North) forest reserve.
The remaining 7.2ha are in the Jugra Blok 2 (Selangor), Triang (Pahang), Kenaboi (Negeri Sembilan), and Lenggeng (Negeri Sembilan) forest reserves.
Aside from forest loss, the southern alignment will also directly affect two Orang Asli villages. It will further come within 3km or less of 12 other Orang Asli settlements.
"Significant impacts are expected at Kampung Orang Asli Bukit Jenuk (Selangor) and Kampung Orang Asli Lumut (Negeri Sembilan) as well as the clusters of Orang Asli communities near to Kuala Langat (North) forest reserve (Selangor).
"The impacts vary from the loss of fish farming ponds, acquisition of houses, removal of plantation areas, and encroachment into roaming areas," read the EIA report.
The southern route will cut through graves in two cemeteries - Temerloh Memorial Park plus the Ulu Beranang and Broga Chinese Cemetery.
In comparison, no Orang Asli settlements will be directly affected by the northern route but four are set to be located within 2km of the track. There is no mention in the northern alignment EIA report about gravesites.
Resolution soon?
The ECRL project began in 2016 under the Najib Abdul Razak federal administration as a means of connecting the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia to the Malacca Straits by rail.
However, the Dr Mahathir Mohamad administration froze the project and mooted the southern alignment instead, which does not end in Port Klang.
The alignment gets its name from travelling through the southern part of Selangor.
From Temerloh in Pahang, it veers southwest to Bera and Bentong before entering Negeri Sembilan. It cuts across Jelebu and then Seremban, entering Selangor via Sepang and terminating in Pulau Indah in Klang.
Three additional “spur lines” divert from the main track to Mentakab, Putrajaya, and Port Klang.
An overview of the Temerloh-Kemasul-Klawang-Nilai-Putrajaya Sentral-Jenjarom track:
When the Muhyiddin Yassin administration came into power, it proposed a new northern route earlier this year.
Selangor and Putrajaya have been at odds ever since. The ongoing ECRL impasse reportedly costs RM1.25 million a day.
Despite being a federal government undertaking, the ECRL project needs Selangor on board as state governments have jurisdiction over land use.
Amirudin has promised Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob a resolution on the alignment this month.
Only then can Selangor determine how much of Kuala Langat to regazette, which he said may happen by the end of 2021 or early 2022.
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