You would not believe your eyes,
If ten million fireflies,
Lit up the world as I fell asleep,
‘Cause they’d fill the open air,
And leave teardrops everywhere,
You’d think me rude,
But I would just stand and stare,
~ Owl City, Fireflies
Let me tell you a little story.
Many years ago, when I’d first moved up to KL, a friend took me all the way to Kuala Selangor. In the dead of the night, not telling me what to expect. I am a little “jakun” so I wasn’t quite sure what was up although the thought of axe murderers did cross my mind – apologies to said friend 😛 After a couple of wrong turns on dark little country roads, I found myself at the Firefly Park at Kuala Selangor.
It was pitch dark except for some lights where the chalets were. We got into a boat with a guide, and headed out into the quiet waters of the mangrove swamp. There was just a tiny sliver of moon and no stars – perfect the guide told us.
We sat and drifted out in the water for a while and then suddenly, as if by magic, I saw the mangrove trees come to live with the pulsating lights of a million fireflies. They made the trees look like they were strung with fairy lights! It was magical!
Since we had the boat to ourselves, we asked the guide to just let us sit there and he did. I sat in the pitch darkness, the quiet night lit only by the pin prick light of the fireflies in the leaves and branches of the mangrove swamp. It was one of the most amazing nature experiences I’ve ever had.
5 years later, I went back to the same Firefly Park in Kuala Selangor. It was the same sort of night, but there weren’t as many fireflies anymore. I asked the guide who told us that the fireflies were disappearing because we are losing our mangrove swamps. Fireflies need the mangrove swamps to survive – and I’ve since learnt that we humans do too. I was very sad. There were a few initiatives by the Selangor government back in the day to rehabilitate the area but my personal belief is that things are only getting worse. I haven’t been back there for a while – I don’t know how it is now.
One day, we will lose our fireflies – an attraction and something very unique to our country. Some day, the next generation will no longer know the magic of the fireflies of the Kuala Selangor mangrove swamps.
So, whilst I’m not one for Earth Hour and Earth Day, the latest CSR initiative by the Estee Lauder Group of Companies to plant mangrove trees in Kuala Selangor in conjunction with the Malaysia Nature Society grabbed me. This is part of their Save the Environment Day effort which falls on June 5, but the program will run for the whole month of June.