THE SELANGOR state Government will not be able to proceed with its plan to de-gazette parts of the Bukit Cherakah Forest Reserve in Shah Alam, following a court ruling today.
This is after the Shah Alam High Court allowed an application by two environmental groups to temporarily stay the state Government’s plan to continue with the controversial de-gazettement pending a hearing of the former’s judicial review leave application.
According to Malaysiakini, the application by the Shah Alam Community Forest (SACF) and Pertubuhan Pelindung Khazanah Alam Malaysia (PEKA) will be heard before Judge Shahnaz Sulaiman on Sept 28.
Leave must be granted by the court before a judicial review can take place.
If the court grants leave, another date will be set to hear the merits of the judicial review.
The two groups seek to challenge the legality of the excision process, involving some 406.22 hectares of land in the forest reserve in Section U10, which they say is “obsolete” as the decision was done 22 years ago.
The applications also claim it was unlawful for the state Government to backdate the gazette notification – issued in May by the Selangor Forestry Department – to a decision by the state executive council in 2000 to de-gazette the land.
Under fire
The Selangor state Government is currently under fire from environmentalist groups and residents over the de-gazettement of the forest reserve, which has reportedly been de-gazetted over 20 times in the last century.
Bukit Cherakah, a popular destination for hikers and nature lovers, once boasted almost 10,000 hectares of land. However, all that is left now is reportedly less than 15% of its former area.
Questions have been raised over the delay in resolving the excision process some 20 years after it started, and whether replacement land of the same size as the excised area was turned into a permanent reserve forest, as per state law.
Selangor Forestry Department director Ahmad Fadzil Abdul Majid has since clarified that the May 5 gazette notification was issued to complete the delisting process that stopped around 2006.
This was done as per Section 13 of the Enactment (Application) of the Selangor State Forestry Act 1985, which states that the state authority must notify the public of any permanent forest reserve area that has been de-gazetted. – Aug 11, 2022
