[2] The early name could have arisen because the island served as a trading station for both residents of Pulau Ubin and the state of Johor.

The reason for Hakka being the majority of the Chinese population is that most of the Hokkien and Teochew businessmen already had flourishing businesses on the mainland.

Pulo Tekong Besar had undergone so much development after World War II, with vegetable, fruit and poultry farms, that the wildlife has mostly disappeared.

On 29 May 1990, national servicemen spotted a family of three Indian elephants which had swum 1.5 km (0.9 mi) across the Straits of Johor.

In March 2004, Pulau Tekong was the hiding place for a group of armed robbers comprising two Indonesians and a Malaysian.

A new training area, called Sanyongkong Field Camp, has been completed on the reclaimed land south of Dogra Bridge.

The NBC stated that the erosion had resulted from extensive movements of ships and strong waves in the area.

A study NParks commissioned in 2006 found that 1.65 km (1.03 mi) of the north-eastern shore is most severely affected.

[12] Local ecologists point out that the island is extremely rich in biodiversity and resident to some rare or endangered species,[13] including the Fern Dipteris conjugata.