Motherland, the second documentary about Tharparkar from Islamabad-based magazine Earthwise, explores how the advent of coal mining has deprived the people of Tharparkar of their land rights. Often coerced into relinquishing their homes and hearths for coal mines, they have lost access to their pastures and farmlands that once guaranteed a self-sufficient way of life.
Many of them have also received little or no compensation even after waging a decade-long legal struggle. This documentary records changes brought about in their lives by coal-related developments. It tells the story of a once prosperous people reduced to pecuniary, feeling imprisoned by their changed circumstances and forced to take up menial jobs.
Clutching a mengkuang-weave bag tightly to her chest, Alang Angah’s face clouded with anguish at the mention of her late father, Angah Alang.
“He went to bathe in the river but never returned,” she said, but it was all she could muster before falling silent, overcome by grief nine years after the tragic death.
The death of Angah, 76, in just three feet of water in the river he bathed and fished in all his life, was not just a personal tragedy for his family.
With him died a repository of tradition and knowledge, passed down for generations in the quiet Temiar community.
Alang Angah, the daughter of community patriarch Angah Alang, who was killed in the river amid a deluge that rushed downstream from the mining, allegedly after a mining pond barrier at a slope gave way. The mine operator denies fault. Photo: Malaysiakini
The villagers believe the flood was man-made, pointing to Bukit Tambun where two licensed iron ore mining operations have been progressively disfiguring their hunting grounds, destroying some of their natural resources, and desecrating parts of areas sacred to the Temiar tribe from generations ago.
READ: Iron Ore Mining is invading an indigenous Orang Asli Community in Malaysia
That day, Angah’s grandson Alai Alang said, a tailing pond sitting on a ridge on Bukit Tambun gave way, and water rushed down to where his grandfather was bathing.
The site at Bukit Tambun, which Malaysiakini visited, still shows tell-tale signs of what happened but the pond, with ridge still covered in tailing. The pond, however, has been moved further from the slope.
The mine operator, Redstar Capital Sdn Bhd, said the mining operations had nothing to do with Angah’s death.
Its administrative manager Julice Chu told Malaysiakini the company cooperated with police on the matter, and the case was closed
“You shall refer to the authorities with regards to the facts, instead of relying solely on the untrue and inaccurate allegations,” she said in a statement.
Secluded Paradise laid to Ruin
Nothing prepared the quiet community for the vast changes that would come with the opening of the Gua Musang-Cameron Highlands highway in 2004. Indeed, nobody told them it would happen.
Without their consent, their pristine rainforest home turned into oil palm, rubber and durian plantations. In 2009, the first iron ore mine, operated by the Chinese national-owned firm Sterling Goldhill Sdn Bhd completely changed the landscape of their ancestral land.
Before that, the Temiar of Kampung Kelaik lived in seclusion, separate from Orang Asli settlements in Gua Musang and without an administrative centre or “post”.
Even today, getting to the village is a bumpy 30-minute journey through logging trails by four-wheel drive vehicle, from the turn off at the highway.
Bukit Tambun (left) and Kampung Kelaik (right), Gua Musang, Kelantan. Photos: Malaysiakini
With no electricity or piped water, they drank from clear streams, foraged and hunted for what they needed, and felt little need to venture beyond their homeland. Even the unhurried pace of Gua Musang town is too bustling for them, said Ahak.
It took the 200 residents of Kampung Kelaik several years after the destruction to realise they had a right to object.
“Twenty years ago when loggers entered our ancestral grounds, some elders from neighbouring Orang Asli posts warned us that challenging the government’s decisions was considered seditious,” he said.
In 2012, the residents of Kampung Kelaik blew the whistle to Malaysiakini, which found the rivers already so red that rice cooked with river water similarly adopted the rusty colour.
But their plights fell on deaf ears as iron ore became even more sought after on the international market. In 2015, another mine – Aqua Orion – opened near Kampung Kelaik.
(Right) Video: Malaysiakini
Poison in Bloodstreams
Returning to Kampung Kelaik more than a decade later, Malaysiakini in the past months conducted more tests on water samples taken at various points of the river – near discharge points of both mines and downstream where Kampung Kelaik residents bathe, swim and fish.
Alarmingly, the tests showed levels of chromium – an element which could cause cancer – were far higher than permissible near the discharge point near the mine run by Aqua Orion, and downstream near Kampung Kelaik.
Even more worrying was the blood test results of one villager, Azlan Ahak, 19, the son of village leader Ahak, whose blood sample was found to have chromium levels four times the normal range, raising his cancer risk 64,000 times higher than normal.
How is Iron Ore Mined?
Near Deaths of Children
Over the years since mining started, water carrying debris would come thundering down to Sungai Kelaik near the village, often without warning, Ahak said.
“During the rainy season, it was daily,” he said.
In 2013, two years before Angah died, children playing in the same river were nearly swept away in a similar incident.
But the mine operator at the time, Sterling Goldhill said it does not discharge iron tailing effluent into the river and reuses the water in mining operations.
Sterling Goldhill has wound up its business and the mine is now run by Redstar Capital Sdn Bhd.
When contacted, Redstar Capital manager Chu, reiterated that the mine doesn’t discharge water into rivers and reuses the water for mining operations. Chu was also attached to Sterling Goldhill.
But when visiting the site, Malaysiakini saw at least two points where water from Redstar Capital’s ponds were released into streams, with at least one via a water lock.
The other mine operator, Aqua Orion and the mine’s licence holder Syarikat Perlombongan Gua Musang, have yet to respond to Malaysiakini’s request for comment.
An 8km hike into Bukit Tambun from a nearby village reveals a once-thriving rainforest reduced to a muddy, uneven wasteland.
Juvenile trees are strewn across man-made ravines, hastily carved by unskilled migrant workers using excavators in a process locals call “cuci hutan,” or “jungle clearing”, where everything is uprooted and removed.
Due to the small size of the rivers that originate from the Bukit Tambun peak, both mines have dammed them to create enough catchment for their water-intensive operations, said Alai.
Licensees under the Waters Act 1920, can, under the supervision of the District Officer, construct infrastructure such as dams and pipes, provided they compensate landowners and remain accountable for any damage caused.
The Act regulates water diversion and construction near rivers to protect water resources and manage flood risks, outlining clear guidelines on licensing, liability, and penalties.
Because of the damming, during the dry seasons, the rivers dry up to become smaller streams, villagers say.
When met, the district officer Nik Raisman Daud said he would instruct the relevant department to inspect the mining sites and investigate allegations of irregularities.
Malaysiakini has also contacted the Environment Department, Geosciences and Mineral Department and the Orang Asli Development Department for comment.
Heavy metal levels in fish and ferns
“We are forest people; we live off what the land gives us,” said Ahak.
But the forest, now ravaged, can no longer provide. The tainted river is no longer teeming with fish, their main source of protein.
Catches are small, and even frogs caught on the riverbanks have a rusty muddy film on their skin.
Jungle herbs that once thrived are also now scarce and daily life is more dangerous – encounters with displaced wildlife have become common.
A test conducted on a local fish, ikan sia – a common source of protein – revealed it to be a potent meal for anyone.
Iron readings of 45.10mg/kg were 22 times higher than the legal limit of 2mg/kg in food, set by the Food Act 1983.
It also contained a slightly higher-than-normal level of chromium and a higher-than-normal level of manganese compared to most freshwater fish.
Ferns, typically growing near riverbanks, had iron levels as high as 21.80 mg/kg, more than 20 times the limit set for iron in food, according to the Food Act.
However, Ahmad Abas Kutty from the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) cautioned that this is not conclusive evidence that it is due to the iron ore mining.
He said although the iron levels in the fish from Kampung Kelaik are higher than the food standards, it is comparable with many freshwater fish.
“Iron levels found in freshwater fish range between 20mg/kg – 100mg/kg,” he told Malaysiakini.
Lawsuit on encroachment of native land
The test results are all compiled as evidence as the Kampung Kelaik residents try to take their matter to the courts again.
Between 2022 and 2023, they tried to seek a court injunction to stop everything that changed the landscape of the entire 8,000ha of their ancestral land – the logging, the palm oil and durian plantations and the mines. But they failed.
Undeterred, they have filed a lawsuit against 10 companies, the state government and three agencies against encroachment into their native land, crowdsourcing legal costs and support.
(Left) Ahak showing a hand-drawn map he made by trekking the borders of 8,923.9ha of Temiar Kampung Kelaik’s ancestral land; (Right) A villager showing a grave. They also bury old knives in a bucket at the grave. Many burial grounds were encroached, they say. Photos: Malaysiakini
Using GPS technology, Ahak and the villagers have painstakingly marked out the boundaries of their native land.
Spreading open a hand-drawn map of their land, Ahak reveals how he has shaded in red about 80 percent of the 8,923.9ha that makes up their native land.
Those areas have already been encroached on by iron ore mining, oil palm and rubber plantations, forest plantations and Malaysia’s largest Musang King plantation.
Temiar men gathering around a bonfire on a pitch-black night. Photo: Malaysiakini
Disappearing way of life
One of the claims they make in their lawsuit is a loss of their native way of life because of the mining, logging and plantation activities. To outsiders, the trees felled are just logs but to the villagers, they are family heirlooms, markers of hunting trails.
When each of them is born, a tree is planted for them. Villagers could point out which tree belongs to whom, and which have been passed down for generations.
The trunk of one inherited rubber tree, planted at least 80 years old, was so large that it took four adult men to wrap their arms around the circumference.
But many of these heirloom trees were logged or bulldozed without consent, they said. The clearing and activities have also desecrated burial grounds.
(Left) Villagers watch trucks carrying large logs pass by, leaving a dusty cloud along the trail; (Right) A rubber tree planted 80 years ago is a treasured heirloom. Photos: Malaysiakini
Standing by a dammed river near the top of Bukit Tambun, Alai points to the ravine where the river once flowed. It used to be a favourite camping spot when he hunted with his late father.
“Sometimes we stayed for a month, hunting and living in the dense rainforest, and there were no dirt roads back then.
“Food was plentiful, and we used to catch fish as big as these tree logs,” he added, gesturing to the forest they once trekked through on foot.Now Bukit Tambun is slowly disappearing as excavators continue to chip away at the iron-rich soil.
Now, at the spot about 7.7km uphill from the nearest village, those logs are staked into the ground, along with others, used as spikes to reinforce the dam wall against landslides.
At the edge of the larger mine, Alai points to a one tree amid the scarred landscape, its low-hanging fruits once useful for trapping birds.
Alai Angah sits by the river bank which has been tainted a rusty red from iron tailing. Photo: S Vinothaa/Malaysiakini
Azlan Ahak, 19, (sitting, right), with his father, Ahak Uda, 57, (sitting, left) and other relatives take a break from house building. Photo: Malaysiakini
Robbed of heritage, robbed of future
But the roar of the heavy machinery had driven wildlife away, and many villagers had to seek work at the mine, to earn money to buy provisions they once hunted or foraged.
The mining has not just robbed the villagers of their heritage and way of life. It may also rob them of their future.
For Azlan, the teenager whose blood chromium levels were four times the normal range, it means an estimated 64,000 times higher chance of developing cancer in his lifetime.
Chemical health expert, How, estimates that six percent of villagers who have the same exposure as Azlan could face the same dim outlook.
The lawsuit is their final hope to make it all stop.
Angah Alang, 76, was an adept swimmer and skilled tribesperson, but on July 23, 2015, he died in just three feet of water.
His body was found trapped among logs and shrubbery which rampaged down the river in a flash flood, along with boulders and mountain debris, some 10km downstream from an iron ore mine uphill.
The Orang Asli patriarch’s death in the river he had fished, swam, and bathed in almost all his life, was a terrible shock to the quiet, remote Temiar community of Kampung Kelaik near Gua Musang, who to this day are grief-stricken by the loss.
Now, the community believes that the same waters that killed Alang are leaving them with skin lesions and tainting their food and water sources.
Worse, they fear whatever that has turned the rivers a rusty red, is poisoning them and their children.
Blood tests revelaed that their fears are not unfounded.
(Left) Video of Azlan Ahak, a 19-year-old boy in Teminar, whose chromium level far exceed the normal range.
At a spot along the quiet Gua Musang-Cameron Highlands highway, raw iron ore – dark and gritty like coarse sand and almost black in colour – lies in heaps awaiting collection.
“These heaps remain untouched until the company receives an order, which can take up to six months. We know the iron is transported to Prai (in Penang), but we don’t know exactly where,” said Ahak Uda, the leader of the Kampung Kelaik action committee.
The ore comes from two mines near Kampung Kelaik, a Temiar Orang Asli village in the hinterlands of Gua Musang, which have been ravaged after more than a decade of mining. The two mines are Redstar Capital, which started in 2009, and Aqua Orion, which began operations in 2015.
There, the rivers have turned a rusty red, while what was once a thriving rainforest has turned into a muddy wasteland.
The plight of the Temiar of Kampung Kelaik was first highlighted by Malaysiakini in 2012, when it was reported that the river was so tainted that rice cooked with its water also emerged with a rusty red tint. Returning more than a decade later, Malaysiakini had over the past months conducted multiple water and environment sampling at various points of the river, and on fish and ferns.
They also conducted tests on blood samples of six villagers who consented to have their blood tested for heavy metals.
Alarmingly, it found that one villager – Azlan Ahak, 19 – who spent the most time in the river daily, had chromium levels four times the normal range in his blood.
How did Chromium get into Azlan’s blood?
Azlan Ahak providing a blood sample for testing for heavy metals. Photo: S Vinothaa
Chromium is a heavy metal with several variants. One variant – chromium-6 – is sometimes referred to in headlines as the “Erin Brockovich chemical” after it became the subject of the blockbuster film of the same name.
The film told the story of a small town in California, in which residents were disproportionately ill due to chromium pollution in their drinking water source.
Was this also how chromium made it into Azlan’s bloodstream, and were the iron mines the culprit?
Tests conducted by Malaysiakini at the discharge points of the two iron ore mines operating upstream of Kampung Kelaik showed for one of the mines – Aqua Orion – the level of chromium was at 2.6mg/L.
This exceeded the limits allowed by the Department of Environment, said water quality expert Zaki Zainudin, who reviewed the water sample test results.The Department of Minerals and Geosciences does not have a set limit for total chromium, but it sets a limit for two variants of chromium – chromium-6 (0.05mg/L) and chromium-3 (1 mg/L) under the Minerals Development (Effluent) Regulations 2016.
On Zaki’s advice, water samples taken on a subsequent expedition were tested for chromium-6 and chromium-3 separately.
It was found that the sample from a pond where tailing sediments were dumped found elevated levels of both chromium-6 (19.4mg/L) and chromium-3 (34.8mg/L).
The permissible levels by DOE are 1.4mg/L and 2.5mg/L respectively for Class III water sources. Class III refers to rivers that can support aquatic and some human activities with proper treatment.
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Department of Environment River Classes and Uses
CLASS I—Clean river with no treatment necessary.
CLASS IIA—Can be used for fisheries and water supply with conventional treatment.
CLASS IIB—Suitable for recreational use with body contact.
CLASS III—Can be used for water supply with extensive treatment and for fishery and livestock drinking.
CLASS IV—Can be used for irrigation.
CLASS V—Polluted river which cannot be used.
Effluents from the pond were released into a river, which found its way to Kampung Kelaik – something Zaki said should not happen.
It is crucial to prevent these elevated levels from entering nearby watercourses, such as rivers and ponds, as they could pose serious health and environmental risks. — Zaki Zainudin, water quality expert.
Water sampling downstream, where Azlan and other villagers access the river for bathing or fishing found a much lower level of chromium – 0.52mg/L for chromium-3 and less than 0.01 for chromium-6.
But it had rained just an hour before sampling.
“Heavy rainfall could dilute the chromium concentration in the water at the time of sampling,” said chemical health expert Vivien How. “Rain can also wash contaminated sediments from upstream areas into rivers, potentially increasing exposure to heavy metals in direct contact with the water.
“However, this may not reflect in a single water sample taken after dilution effects from rain,” she said.
[The infographic below is a looping gif – please pause to view and understand it accurately]
Chemical analysis expert How said that further analysis was required to conclusively link the chromium in Azlan’s blood with pollution in the river but the water and blood data showed it is likely.
She added that the test results didn’t show high chromium levels in the swimming area due to heavy rain during sampling, which might have masked true contamination.
When asked if the plantations may have also contributed to the chromium contamination, she said that the pesticides used can “seep into the soil, contaminate the water, and further enhance environmental burdens”.
Elevated Risk of Cancer
How said the findings are red flags, enough to warrant further investigations by relevant authorities, especially due to the severe health implications.
She then estimated Azlan’s lifetime carcinogenic risk (LCR) from his test results. This measures the risk of him developing cancer in his lifetime. She found that it “far exceeded” the normal threshold. How far is that?
[The graphics below are looping gifs – please pause to view them accurately]
“Using Azlan’s exposure data as a reference for the villagers, this suggested a severe risk of developing non-carcinogenic health effects from chromium exposure through prolonged reliance on the river as a water source. Potential impacts may include kidney, liver, and respiratory issues over the course of exposure,” said How.
Read Vivien How’s technical report here.
Most Exposure to the River
Azlan was the only one among six villagers tested who had higher than normal chromium levels in his blood. How said his result was “worrying”.
Azlan was also the youngest among them, and spent the most time in the river, compared to the other villagers willing to be tested. “The aluminium, arsenic, and chromium are telling us something… It’s enough to raise concern and bring awareness of this to the relevant parties,” she said.
Once a Secluded Paradise
Satellite image from 2023 shows how iron ore mining has ravaged pristine rainforests, home of the Temiar folk of Kampung Kelaik near Gua Musang. Image: Malaysiakini
The Gua Musang-Cameron Highlands highway, which opened in 2004, accelerated the spread of oil palm, rubber, and durian plantations, and the mining operations on their ancestral land.
Before that, this Temiar community of about 200 people lived in seclusion, separate from Orang Asli settlements in Gua Musang and without an administrative centre or “post”.
With no electricity or piped water, they drank from clear streams, foraged and hunted for what they needed, and felt little need to venture beyond their homeland. Even the unhurried pace of Gua Musang town was too bustling for them, said Ahak.
The stream on the left is slightly further from Kampung Kelaik. The water is clear, compared to the rivers at Kampung Kelaik (right), located directly downstream from the mines. Photos: (left) Azneal Ishak, (right) Kg Kelaik villagers via Malaysiakini
Iron ore mining in Kampung Kelaik started in 2009 when Azlan was just four years old.
By the age of five, he was already joining fishing and hunting expeditions, recalled his father, Ahak, who spoke on his behalf because Azlan was not fluent in Bahasa Malaysia.
Today, he visits the water up to three times a week, his father said.
He spends hours at a time in the river, catching fish and frogs, the community’s main source of protein, especially now that wild game has been chased away by widescale deforestation and the sound of heavy machinery from mining activities.
Since the river they used for drinking, bathing, and fishing for generations started turning red, Kampung Kelaik, with the help of the Health Department and NGOs, sourced water from a neighbouring uphill stream. The stream is clear, compared to the rivers downstream from the mines.
A mini reservoir built with the help of NGOs and the Health Department is meant to capture water from an unpolluted stream further away from Kampung Kelaik and pipe it down to the village. But the reservoir often gets clogged by natural debris. Photo: S Vinothaa/Malaysiakini
But these streams are too small to sustain fish populations, and during heavy downpours, the gravity pipe system and small reservoir built to source water is clogged by debris, cutting water supply, sometimes for days, Ahak said.
The struggle even for the most basic things – water – had worn down the community. They feel they have lost more than just the tranquillity of their forest.
Even the skins of the frogs were stained with a cakey, rusty red film by the time the villagers catch them.
Skin lesions, breathing and neurological difficulties
Like Azlan, those who can’t afford to buy food from outside the village continue to spend hours in the rivers, despite the lesions developing on their skin.
A medical professional who treated some of the villagers for their skin ailments told Malaysiakini she could not rule out the river water as the cause of the contact dermatitis that she saw.
“Lesions usually recover when they avoid contact with the river water and, for the immediate solution, I would suggest rainwater catchment with filters as all gave the history that skin lesions began with contact with river water,” said the doctor, who declined to be identified.
Photos: Azneal Ishak, S Vinothaa and Kampung Kelaik villagers
More worryingly, she said some of them complained of having “respiratory and neurological” problems for up to one hour after getting out of the river.
Further tests would be needed to determine if these conditions suffered by Azlan and others like him in Kampung Kelaik are due to chromium poisoning.
Chromium exposure among workers at chrome and steel factories was found to have led to higher rates of lung cancer mortality, according to the US Department of Occupational Safety.
Loophole in the Law
While higher than permissible rates of chromium and other heavy metals found near the discharge point at Aqua Orion may appear like a clear violation of the law, Zaki, the water quality expert, said enforcing it might be a challenge.
A loophole in the law allows a licence holder to apply to the director-general for permission to discharge effluent exceeding the standard limit with certain limitations, Zaki said.
Another loophole could be that these two mines, which began operations in 2009 and 2015, may not be required to comply with these regulations, because the current regulations became effective January 2017.
(Right) A frog caught in the river polluted by mining effluent, has a rusty red film on it. It is a source of protein. Photo: Azneal Ishak via Malaysiakini
Redstar Capital: We comply to all regulations
The Minerals and Geosciences Department (JMG) has yet to respond to Malaysiakini’s questions on suspected irregularities in the mining at Kampung Kelaik.
However, the department confirmed that Redstar Capital is the contractor responsible for the mining operations under a 20-year lease held by Syarikat Perlombongan Gua Musang Sdn Bhd since 2009.
Aqua Orion, meanwhile, was issued a mining licence for 2015 to 2025, the department said.
Redstar Capital administration manager, Julice Chu Lai Siong, defended the company’s practices, and said that media coverage of the issue over the past 10 years had been one-sided.
“We have received questions from the government…Our operations follow the rules,” she said when contacted via telephone.
Responding to Malaysiakini’s email later, she said the mine uses a “closed circuit” and “zero discharge” concept.
“Effluent water will be recycled to be used for mining processing and no effluent water will be released into the river,” she said, adding that the mine does regular effluent monitoring, and rivers nearby are sampled and sent to the JMG and DOE monthly for checks. “We will comply with the JMG standard limits of chromium-3 and chromium-6 which are 0.20 mg/L and 0.05mg/L respectively.”
She said Redstar Capital has never received complaints from the community about its operations, and that community patriarch Alang Angah’s death nine years ago was unrelated to its operation. The police case on the matter has also been closed, she said.
Malaysiakini has also contacted the other mine operator Aqua Orion, Syarikat Pelombongan Gua Musang, and the Department of Orang Asli Affairs (Jakoa) for comment.
We want our Land back
Ahak’s voice betrayed the anguish and worry he tried to hide when Malaysiakini called him with the bad news about his son Azlan’s blood test.
With urgency in his voice, he asked if all the villagers could be tested because the river is central to their lives – for fishing, washing, and playing.
“Many others go to the river more often. This is very dangerous, and I’m deeply concerned for their safety.”
When met, Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad told Malaysiakini his ministry would conduct further testing on the villagers to assess them for heavy metal poisoning, following the high levels of chromium found in Azlan’s blood sample.
Ahak said he was angry and disappointed – with the Kelantan government, the Orang Asli Development Department (Kelaik), Galas assemblyperson Mohd Syahbuddin Hashim, and even the Tok Batin of Kampung Kelaik.
They were all tasked to protect his community, but all of them failed the Temiar community since the loggers first arrived in 2005, Ahak said.
The three plaintiffs (from left): Aziz Angah, 30, Ahak Uda, 57, and Anjang Uda, 33. Photos: Kampung Kelaik villagers via Malaysiakini
Lawsuit against Native Land Encroachment
Ahak is now even more resolved to see through the community’s civil suit against the Kelantan government and other parties the villagers accused of encroaching into some 8,000 hectares of ancestral land and their way of life.
They have filed a lawsuit against 10 companies, the state government, and three agencies, crowdsourcing legal costs and support.
“We want our ancestral land back. We believe if these operations stop, the land will heal and eventually return to its original state, allowing future generations to thrive here,” Ahak said.
“We are the original people of this land and we have every right to reclaim what is ours.”