Lying idle beside a small hill in Tasik Chini, Pahang, were 10 excavators and earthmovers overlooking the second largest natural freshwater lake in Peninsular Malaysia.

These are the remnants of massive mining activities which have left the land pockmarked with massive pits the size of football fields.

Mining activities ceased in December last year, several months after protests by the Pahang regent.

For the Orang Asli community in the Chini vicinity, the damage done to the lake by logging and mining since 2009 had been...