It used to be an open tin mining site, the kind that has the ground stripped bare in layers and processed with chemicals, creating huge craters in a barren landscape. The gigantic bulldozers are now silent and the ugly, gaping wounds in the earth have over the years filled up with water.
Bulrushes grow by the manmade ponds that has been created.
The mounds of piled mud, once bleached white, are now covered with grass and wild flowers. Many bird species are slowly coming back. Monitor lizards and all three species of pythons that are found in Malaysia are among the species that have come back ever since mining activities stopped in 1997. Long targeted by environmentalists who felt little was being done to protect Malaysia's rainforests and rich biodiversity, the government has over the years taken up many environmental projects with great fanfare. The Paya Indah sanctuary is situated in what is known as the Multimedia Supercorridor or the Cyber Jaya Corridor, part of an ambitious plan to develop a high-tech industrial area around the capital Kuala Lumpur.