Nature park at planned Bukit Timah Turf City will preserve globally threatened wildlife, rare flora

An MRT station for the upcoming Cross Island Line will be built in the area.

Nature parks provide additional, safeguarded habitats for forest creatures. Such parks also reduce footfall on the more fragile nature reserves by providing the public with alternative green spaces.

“During the Covid-19 pandemic, we saw high visitorship to our nature reserves and parks, including nature parks adjacent to Bukit Timah and Central Catchment nature reserves. Visitorship to the nature reserves and nature parks has remained generally high since,” said NParks and URA.

Aecom’s environmental impact study found that more than 50 per cent of Bukit Timah Turf City is non-vegetated or covered by urban vegetation, as these were largely built-up areas.

Secondary forests dominated by native trees comprise only 10 per cent of the total area and are found mostly in Eng Neo Avenue Forest and Bukit Tinggi, said NParks and URA.

Other habitat types recorded across the entire Turf City are abandoned land forest, secondary forest dominated by non-native exotic trees, scrubland and water bodies.

It was reported in 2024 that about one-third of the Bukit Timah Turf City estate will be set aside for green spaces such as parks, open spaces and natural greenery.

Aecom’s study recommended a larger area be conserved, extending down from the proposed nature park boundaries.

During consultations with the authorities, advocates and the Nature Society Singapore (NSS) lobbied hard to preserve more habitats across Turf City that contribute to the ecology of the area.

One of them is an isolated forest stretch in the middle of the former racecourse.

The study also proposed ways to monitor and manage the environmental impact of the construction works, noted the government agencies.

These include inspections to minimise injury to fauna during site clearance, and planning the clearance works progressively and carefully to guide wildlife towards the forests that will be retained.

Having a wildlife response plan in place when encountering animals around or in the worksite was also recommended.

Nature advocates whom ST spoke to were relatively satisfied that much of Eng Neo Avenue Forest and Bukit Tinggi will be preserved.

While Bukit Tinggi is smaller, the native forest was the most diverse and concentrated, with nearly 100 nationally threatened plants, said Aecom’s study, which mapped plants of conservation significance.

“On the map, Bukit Tinggi basically lit up like a Christmas tree. You hardly ever see that in areas outside of nature reserves,” said Mr Muhammad Nasry Abdul Nasir, executive director of the Singapore Youth Voices for Biodiversity, the local chapter of a global youth network concerned with tackling nature loss.

“This tells you the forest patch is extremely mature or possibly even a remnant of primary forest that was perhaps cut off from the rest of the nature reserves when the PIE was first built,” he added.

Singapore’s only native vanilla plant – the Vanilla griffithii, thought to exist within only the Central Catchment Nature Reserve – was also recorded.

Nature advocates are hoping that a wildlife crossing bridge much like Eco-Link@BKE will be built across the Pan Island Expressway to link the future nature park and the nature reserve.

“Maintaining connectivity within the (nature park) is a welcome move, but it is pointless if it just leads to a dead end, in this case, the expressway,” added Mr Nasry.

Mr Alan Owyong, committee member of the NSS Bird Group, said roadkill has been recorded when wildlife crosses over the expressway and Eng Neo Avenue. Most of them are snakes and small ground mammals.

The Aecom study also recommended crossings at selected areas to allow creatures to move under roads.

Mr Nasry noted that a wildlife bridge across the PIE will be an engineering challenge, as the forests on either side are on lower ground. The forest edges have to be handled sensitively if slopes were to be built.