More Forest Reserve Land in the Klang Valley Expected to be Gone

Another headline news on the degazettement of forest reserve land that will be making way for urban development in Puchong:

The Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve is one of the last remaining significant forest cover in the urban Klang Valley area. Many years ago, I already had a suspicion that greedy developers (and their government counterparts) wont leave such strategic and precious forest land alone for long as developing it would yield tonnes of profits for far too many interested parties that it will look stupid on them to not do anything with it. This piece of news confirms the degazettement of this significant forest reserve within the city (a total of 68.4 ha to be precise).

This satelitte image shows the location of the Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve in Puchong. It is one of the last remaining significant forest cover within the Klang Valley.

The parts that have been earmarked for future development is located around the northwestern corner of the forest reserve (near the Saraka Appartments). This trend likely wont stop here because as the city grows, so will demand for more housing. This will put pressure on state authorities to degazette more forest land for urban development. Opportunistic developers will obviously be lobbying behind the scenes to tempt stakeholders into opening up more forest land in the city.

The same trend can already be seen in the Mont Kiara area. As Mont Kiara proper is already fully saturated with development, the only way for any development to expand is on the forested lands of Bukit Kiara Hill itself (towards Segambut Dalam area).

Satellite image showing the forested area of Bukit Kiara located next to Mont Kiara proper. Some landed property (Serene Kiara) have already been developed in the middle of the hill as seen on the map.

The Kampung Segambut Dalam area as seen from my childhood home in Mont Kiara Pines. Still very green and forested back then.

Mont Kiara was surrounded by greenery back then. Certainly did not feel like the concrete jungle it is today. View as seen from my childhood home in Mont Kiara Pines.

When I was growing up in the Mont Kiara area, I recall the area towards the Bukit Kiara Hills completely covered in lush greenery. There were certainly very few high rises on this side of town and only the squatter Kampung Segambut Dalam lies there. Fast forward to today (2026), even Kampung Segambut Dalam is dissappearing and being replaced by forest of high rises. When there's no more kampung land to develop, the developers will certainly encroach into the forested Bukit Kiara Hill to expand their development plan of Mont Kiara. It's not a matter of if but when. This is sadly the trend in urban areas whereby forest cover is sacrificed for urban development as the population continues to grow and the demand for housing follows accordingly. There will come a day where the Bukit Kiara forest cover will be completely lost and inevitably be replaced by concrete jungle.