Introduction
Why Bukit Timah Nature Reserve is Important to You
*Singapore is now an intensely urbanized city-state. Its people are mostly city-folk, living in high-rise apartment blocks.
*But it was not always so. The Bukit Timah Nature Reserve is one of our last glimpses of the lushly forested island Singapore once was.
*This exciting 75 hectares of Southeast Asian Tropical Rainforest at Bukit Timah belongs to all of us, Singaporeans and visitors alike.
About The Reserve
*Bukit Timah Nature Reserve includes Singapore's highest hill, BUKIT TIMAH HILL, 162.5 metres above sea level, and composed of ancient granite.
*The reserve is the only genuine patch of primary (undisturbed) rainforest on Singapore island. it is linked by secondary (disturbed) forest "channels" to the Central Catchment Area, which encompasses our major reserves in the centre of the island.
*Apart from an abundance of tropical trees, plants, flowers, birds, mammals, reptiles and insects, many of which cannot be found anywhere else in Singapore, there are also magnificent views of Singapore from the hill itself, looking as far out as the straits of Johor and Malaysia, to the north.
History
*Of the several forest reserves set aside in 1883 by Nathaniel Cantley, Superintendant of the Botanic Gardens, Bukit Timah was the only one not worked for timber in the then British Colony of Singapore.
*By 1937, the developers’ demand for land in expanding Singapore obliged the authorities to abolish the forest reserves, except in three areas only.
*Today, we have three designated reserves area: Bukit Timah, the Central Catchment Area, and Labrador Park on the West Coast, a total of about 2000 hectares.