Belum State Park was established in 2000 and later in 2003 it was known as The Royal Belum. On 3 May 2007, The Royal Belum area was gazetted as the Royal Belum State Park.

The total area of the Royal Belum State Park is about 117,500 hectares, which covers almost 90% of the Belum Forest Reserve area and equivalent to 132 hectares.

Located in Hulu Perak District, it borders Thailand on the north, the East-West Highway on the south and the state of Kelantan on the east.  It is also located near to the Bang Lang National Park and Hala Bala Wildlife Sanctuary in Thailand.

Historically, the ‘Belum’ name was said to have been derived from a sound emitted by the stick insect which sounded like “Belummm..belummm”.

About 200 years ago, Kampung Belum Lama was opened by a royal couple from the Kingdom of Patani/Siam (reign of King Reman/Rahman) who was known as Wan Agas. However, the locals called him by the name of Tok Mekong Gas and Tok Pulang Hari.

During the British occupancy in Malaya, the Belum Lama district was placed into the Perak state based on the  Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909, an agreement signed between the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Siam. Belum Baru village was created years later by the British during the Malayan Emergency. Local villagers were forced to move to a new land following the previous was occupied by the communist guerrillas as a base to obtain their supplies and training.   The Belum Baru village was created in 1953; it was located near to the town of Gerik and it is still occupied till today.

DID YOU KNOW?

The name of “BELUM” derived from a stick grasshopper (or a stick insect) which was called ‘Belang Belong’ by the locals. It has a long brown body with long legs and looked like a stick with small wings and move sat a slow  pace. This insect ate young tree shoots and is very active at night. They emits their name repeatedly like ‘belang belong’ and hence the creation of the name for the tropical rainforest.