Bukit Lawang rehabilitation center for orangutans was founded in 1973. The main purpose is to preserve the decreasing number of orangutan population due to hunting, trading and deforestation.

A flash flood hit Bukit Lawang on 2 November 2003. The disaster, which was the result of illegal logging, destroyed the local tourist resorts and had a devastating impact to the local tourism industry in the area.

Bukit Lawang literally means "door to the hills". Bukit Lawang is a small village situated 90 kilometers northwest of Medan, the capital city of North Sumatra, Indonesia.

Bukit Lawang is most famous for being one of the last places in the world where one can see Orang Utans in the wild. Bukit Lawang is situated at the eastern side of Gunung Leuser National Park.
In 1973 a Swiss organisation set up an orangutan rehabilitation centre in Bukit Lawang.

The purpose of the centre was to rehabilitate orangutans released from captivity. The rangers at the centre teach the orangutan all the necessary skills to survive in the wild. After an intense period of quarantine, readjustment to the natural habitat and reintegration in the (semi-)wild population, the orangutan is released back into the jungle.

All orangutans released are still monitored by the rangers and they still provide them with supplementary food at the feeding platform until they become fully self relient.
In the years after the arrival of the rehabilitation centre more and more tourists found their way to Bukit Lawang and it became one of the most popular destinations in Sumatra

Flora & Fauna
Seeing the orangutans is a magical experience. You can usually see them near the rehabilitation centre and at the feeding platform during the morning and afternoon feeding sessions. Still the best experience is an encounter in the jungle where there are many semi-wild and wild animals.

The wild Orangutan can be difficult to spot unless you go deep into the jungle. There are also white and black gibbons that make an amazing noise calling out to each other, and Thomas Leaf monkeys. If you are lucky, you may be able to see toucans, moon snakes, monitor lizards.

Since there are very few still alive, it is very improbable that either the Sumatran Tiger or the Sumatran Rhinoceros will be encountered, although footprints and droppings have been reported.