Bukit Batok Hillside Park area: First forest tour of the new year 2021 and notes on nature conservation

View of Bukit Batok Hillside Park area from Bukit Gombak

The year 2021 is off to a cool start, as we are currently experiencing the northeast monsoon season and La Nina effect, which have been bringing intense storms in the Southeast Asian region.

Due to the prolonged monsoon rains during the first couple of days of the new year, the temperature in Singapore dropped to as low as 21.2 degrees Celsius on Saturday, 2 January 2021.

The rain abated by Sunday morning, 3 January, thankfully, as about 20 participants and I were able to embark on our first forest tour of the year at Bukit Batok Hillside Park (BBHP) area.

As we are now in Phase 3 of COVID-19 circuit breaker, we divided ourselves into smaller groups for safe distancing during the tour.

Approximate route taken by the tour groups. We saw a huge fig tree near the stream. Considering that there are a number of fairly mature trees providing ecosystem services in the lower elevation parts of the forest, Bukit Batok Hillside Park area is worth conserving in its entirety, instead of having parts of the area destroyed and developed for housing.

Little forest creatures, such as slugs and butterflies, were seen in the hillside park area.

An immersive hiking experience in the cool interior of the surreal forest in our backyard, which is reminiscent of the mossy forest in Cameron Highlands, Peninsular Malaysia
(Photo by Shawal Yeo)

View of the surroundings from the lookout point atop the hill. We could see the destruction of Tengah forest for housing development going on behind the new Build-To-Order (BTO) flats under construction.

Grey or green environment? The kind of future we want to create is in the hands of our current and future generations.
(Photo by Shawal Yeo)

Hiking in the forest is good for our physical and mental health. Exposure to the phytoncides given off by trees and other plants boosts our immune system. We need to preserve the lower elevation parts of the forest as well, for ease of access for both native wildlife and hikers from all walks of life.
(Photo by Shawal Yeo)

Our forest is the lungs of the Earth. While it is good to replant trees for enhanced greenery, the trees in our dense forests purify the air and cool our surroundings much more effectively than fragmented parks, manicured gardens and roadside trees.
(Source: vegantipster on Instagram)

The refreshing natural stream cascading down the forested slope is a rare sight in urbanised Singapore. Given the fragile nature of the water catchment area, if construction were to take place in the vicinity, it could adversely affect the water quality and liveability of the ecosystem for our native flora and fauna, such as forest-dependent birds and amphibians (e.g. greater racket-tailed drongos and copper-cheeked frogs).

Different kinds of mushrooms are found growing in the forest, which is Nature’s pharmacy. We need to conserve our forests and train young botanists and ecologists who can identify medicinal plants for our healthcare needs.
(Photo by Shawal Yeo)

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Huge fig tree seen near the stream at the lower elevation part of Bukit Batok Hillside Park area. It appears to be a banyan tree, which reminds me of the famous “God-tree” in Toa Payoh Central, which has defied attempts by a bulldozer to destroy it.

The objective of the tour in Bukit Batok Hillside Park area is to experience the forest for ourselves and share our experience with others. Our flora and fauna cannot speak for themselves, so we are their eyes, ears and voice, by which we can help raise awareness about the need to conserve this entire ecological corridor between Tengah forest and Bukit Batok central nature park.
(Photo by Shawal Yeo)

Conversation on nature conservation and sustainable development

Meanwhile, let’s have a conversation on nature conservation and sustainable development to answer some questions anticipated from critics of environmentalism.

Q: Is it true that we are experiencing global warming, now that we are experiencing cool rainy weather? Do we really need to be concerned about deforestation?

A: Global warming is a long-term climatic trend, not subject to daily or seasonal changes.

Though we may be experiencing cool temperatures of 22-24 degrees Celsius during the rainy northeast monsoon season, we may also experience hot dry intermonsoon seasons at other times of the year.

It is projected that Singapore will experience an increase of as much as 4.6 degrees Celsius by the year 2100.

That means the maximum daily temperature may reach as high as 39.6 degrees in 80 years’ time.

Such hot weather conditions can be detrimental to our health and well-being, especially those vulnerable to climate change, such as the very young, the elderly, the disabled and the sick.

Hence, the time to stop deforestation and focus on redevelopment of brownfield sites is now.

Sizeable dense forests (of 10 ha or bigger) can cool the surrounding air in a built-up urban area more effectively than small parks and gardens.

For example, Bukit Batok is generally 1.5 degrees Celsius cooler than Toa Payoh because Bukit Batok is surrounded by dense forests, whereas Toa Payoh has only roadside trees, and its mainly open-spaced town park has limited cooling ability.

Q: Is our ecosystem really experiencing a crisis? We seem to be getting on fine even after losing more than 95% of our original rainforests and at least 50% of our original flora and fauna in the past 200 years.

A: Let’s consider this analogy.

If you have been eating unhealthy food regularly, such as fast food, for a number of years, you may look healthy outwardly, but inwardly, your blood vessels are clogging with saturated fats.

Occasionally, you may fall sick, or even experience some organ disease and seek treatment.

As you continue to eat unhealthy foods regularly for another 20 to 30 years, you may have to become dependent on medication just to stay alive and prevent yourself from getting a stroke or heart attack.

Would you say that you are still healthy, or are you experiencing a health crisis?

Similarly, if we continue to destroy our remaining secondary forests, even though we seem to be able to go on our daily lives as usual, we are actually spending millions of our public funds to mitigate the negative consequences, such as flood prevention, dengue fever control, heat mitigation, etc.

“The incidence of dengue, caused by viruses spread by the Aedes mosquito, has increased 30-fold in the past 50 years…. Increased urbanisation, travel and migration, the pressures of globalisation, and global warming are likely to maintain dengue transmission at high levels and continue to result in major outbreaks in affected countries.”

(Source: “Act against dengue now with tools that exist“, 24 July 2015)

Suppose we stop spending on all these damage control measures, can we still say we can live as per normal (as compared to, say, indigenous peoples who have been living in tropical rainforests for thousands of years in a simple, sensible and sustainable manner)?

Can we survive the next extreme storm without any expensive flood control technology?

Can we survive the dengue fever outbreak caused by deforestation without any expensive vector control measures of mosquito-frequented urbanised areas?

Can we survive the worsening urban heat island effect without having to spend millions of dollars on mass airconditioning, designing and constructing “green” buildings, etc?

Until we acknowledge the problems and have honest conversations on nature conservation and stop further deforestation (and instead choose to redevelop brownfield sites), we and our future generations will continue to bear the massive costs of environmental degradation and unsustainable development.

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  Fallen tree along forest fringe

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  Fallen tree in forest interior near the fringe

Fallen trees in Bukit Batok Hillside Park area, as seen on 6 January 2021. According to conservation biologist Dr Thomas Lovejoy, small forest fragments under 10 ha in size are very vulnerable to edge effects, such as windthrow which causes trees to topple or be broken by wind. If only 8.9 ha instead of the full 17 ha of Bukit Batok Hillside Park area is conserved as a nature park, the forest will become even more fragmented and will be unlikely to sustain much biodiversity or function effectively as a wildlife corridor.

P.S. Click here to support the petition to save the forests in the entire Bukit Batok Hillside Park area from housing development.

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A case for conservation of Tengah forest in Singapore

Why we need the forest 🌳🌳🌳🌳

A couple of days ago, I took time off after my morning shift for hiking.

It is part of my voluntary project for nature conservation and environmental awareness.

The photos and videos of the hike serve to preserve the memory of Tengah forest for posterity.

I am also inspired to make a special video that combines video clips from my previous hike to make a case for conservation.

Why?

Because climate change affects all of us, including plants, animals and humans.

According to an article:

“New research has found strong evidence that climate change is spurring conflict, which is driving people to abandon their homelands and seek safety elsewhere.”

In Singapore, it is already happening in some ways.

Birds and animals have been displaced from their homes ever since urban development started some 200 years ago.

With the ongoing clearance of Tengah forest, the baya weavers, otters and other animals are in danger of losing their homes.

It probably wouldn’t be long before more and more of us humans will also become environmental refugees due to climate change affecting the liveability of our environment.

To where will we seek asylum?

To where can we really migrate since the effects of climate change are ubiquitous?

What happens in one country will affect other countries, as seen in the case of the Sumatran haze and many other examples.

The future is in our hands.

A visit to Lentor-Tagore forest

Having been reading on Facebook about the impending development of Lentor area that will result in the destruction of forest and two natural streams, I decided to check out the area this afternoon in search of the elusive streams. 

But it turned out that I was a bit too late because when I arrived at Yio Chu Kang road via Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5, I saw that the entrance to the forest, where the streams were supposed to be, has been fenced off, and a portion of the forest behind a bus stop along Yio Chu Kang road has already been cleared. 

I decided to cycle around Lentor private housing estate, hoping to find another way to Lentor forest. The nearest I could get to the forest is via a canal near the junction of Lentor avenue and Seletar Expressway (SLE).

From the end of the canal, I could see heavy machinery clearing the forest. I found a path through the forest fringe that led me closer to the clearing. 

I decided not to venture too close to the clearing and turned back. I later circled round the area via Springleaf nature park in the north to the other side of the forest, hoping to find an entrance to the forest from Tagore Industrial Avenue. 

I managed to find a small entrance along the avenue, and walked some distance along the fringe of the Tagore forest. I came to the point where forest clearing was taking place in the south beside a stagnant-looking water body. 

Is that part of a natural stream? I wasn’t sure, and I didn’t want to trespass the construction site, and decided to hike in another part of the forest. I followed a track through Tagore forest that led me to SLE in the north. 

Apart from some wildlife such as a wild boar, a jungle rooster and munias, I didn’t see much in this area. There seems no signs of any natural streams. I suppose they are only found in the part of the Lentor forest that has been fenced off, which I wasn’t able to access. (Or maybe there is another entrance to Lentor forest that leads to the streams that I am unaware of, as I am unfamiliar with the area.)

I decided to call it a day, as evening was approaching. I cycled via Teachers’ Estate back to Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5, and took a lift up to the highest floor of a HDB block, and snapped some sunset pictures, showing an aerial view of the remaining forest next to Teachers’ Estate.