Bordering Damansara, Kepong, Kuang and Kuala Selangor, Sungai Buloh is notable for its colonial-era leper colony, one of the largest in the country.

A town in Jeram in Kuala Selangor where the estuary of Sungai Buloh begins was also named after the river.

In 1930, in an isolated valley of Bukit Lagong, Sungai Buloh, a group of Malays, Chinese, Indians, Eurasians and Turks set up a contained community in the wake of the 1926 Leper Enactment Act,[1] which required the segregation and treatment of those with the disease.

Sungei Buloh was a pioneer project based on the "enlightened policy" of segregating leprosy patients in a self-supporting community following the principles of a garden city.

Sungai Buloh was the site of the Bright Sparklers Firework factory explosion in May 1991 and the subsequent fire.