The Selangor Forestry Department had made allegedly contradictory claims in justifying the “backdated” excision of land from the Bukit Cerakah Forest Reserve.

The department’s silviculture and biological forest preservation director Ahmad Fadzil Abdul Majid had claimed that the excision has been “pending” since 2006 and hence was not subjected to a 2011 law mandating public hearings prior to an excision exercise.

In a statement today...