WORLD-class anglers go to India’s Cauvery River in the hope of landing what may be the catch of a lifetime – the mighty Mahseer, king of the Himalayan rivers. Local entrepreneur Sharifuddin Budin, 43, believes they should come to Kelantan’s Sungai Nenggiri too, where they can find the Malaysian king of freshwater sport fish.
Sleek, well-muscled and armoured with large golden scales, the Malaysian mahseer, known locally as kelah and scientifically as Tor tambroides, is famed for the powerful fight it puts up when reeled in by the rod. Although the kelah still exists in the few rivers that are still unpolluted, such as those that feed the Kenyir Dam in Taman Negara and in Endau-Rompin National Park, the sizes of the fish are relatively small. The Nenggiri in contrast still has large specimens. The biggest recorded specimen discovered there weighed 27kg and was released back safely into the waters to go forth and multiply.
“They (international anglers) want the trophy size type. The fish must be more than 10kg,” says Sharifuddin, himself an angler who has been honing his kelah-catching skills for 15 years.
His belief in the potential of the Nenggiri to become a world destination for anglers is not a tall tale. His company Titiwangsa Heritage has been granted permission by the Kelantan government last November to do a five-year study on the kelah in Nenggiri with a view toward conservation.
The project area covers 800ha, centring on the Nenggiri and its tributaries Puian and Perian. The site is now off limits to all except the orang asli and other local community members who are allowed to fish for their daily subsistence, as well as those authorised by Sharifuddin’s company.
The move was not a moment too soon as the kelah was facing direct and immediate threat from environmentally unsound fishing methods such as nets, electrofishing and poisoning used by fish collectors, most of whom are alleged to be outsiders to the area. Also, as the kelah thrives in clean waters and is vulnerable to changes in water quality, it is being further threatened by river siltation from deforestation due to land clearing and logging in the upper catchment area.
Just how big is the kelah population in Nenggiri? A limited two-week survey last June by Prof Dr Mohd Azmi Ambak of Kolej Universiti Sains dan Teknologi Malaysia (Kustem) in Kuala Terengganu only managed a sampling of 30 whose sizes ranged from 0.75kg to 3.9kg. But according to anecdotal feedback, a decade ago you could catch 10 of the 15kg ones in a month.
The business of conservation
Besides the “royal” resident in the river, some natural attractions of the Nenggiri’s 360,000ha catchment area of secondary tropical forest and limestone caves are the Sumatran rhinoceros, elephant and tiger, as well as rare plants such as the Rafflesia.
With such treasures at stake, Sharifuddin is exploring management options similar to that of Taman Negara – that is, charging anglers a fee for the experience with local guides in tow.
Sharifuddin makes no bones about making a business out of it. “This needs to be sustainable for the community,” he says, adding that strict protection is “for the academics.” However, he stresses: “This project does not belong to me. It belongs to the anglers.” Even then, he asks, somewhat sceptically: “Can they give time and money to the project?”
His take on preservation was born of observation and experience. He was a kelah fishing guide in Taman Negara and Kenyir Lake after learning the tricks of catching the fish from the orang asli and Malay villagers whom he lived with in the vicinity of the national park in the late 1980s. At that time, whatever kelah he caught ended up inside his stomach.
That changed after 1994 when he noticed that the slowgrowing kelah was facing a disproportionate increase in demand from the fishing rod, the cooking pot and the aquarium.
“I started to think about how to protect the fish. I talked with my angler friends and we concluded that catch-andrelease is the best option. If we can protect the fish, then more people like me can enjoy fishing for the kelah in the future.”
A few chances in Kenyir, Taman Negara and Terengganu to realise his dream fell through due to different reasons. He landed the deal on the kelah in Nenggiri after four years of negotiations, initial surveys and consultation with the locals, as well as support in
kind and cash amounting to half a million ringgit from friends.
Community development
Through the kelah project, he also hopes to repay his debt to the villagers who helped him during his time in the Titiwangsa forests.
“I promised to bring all their issues to (the administrative centre in) Kuala Lumpur through the kelah,” he says, ruing that even after four decades of independence and rapid development in Malaysia, there are rural areas that are still backward in infrastructure and basic facilities.
Capitalising on the fish’s pulling power, Sharifuddin aims to be a “unity coordinator” by bringing urbanites to the river with the villagers as guides, exposing the former to life in the remote jungle as well as the different outlook of the villagers. Ultimately, what he holds dear is his vision of development for the river communities, one that retains traditional principles of community living like gotongroyong and mutual trust.
“I will spend the last of my years there. I don’t want to face the (urban-influenced) bourgeoisie there. I want to see a new life there,” he says. Meanwhile, in the next three years, he hopes to make the project site the ultimate trophy-size kelah paradise in Malaysia, and the tributaries of the Nenggiri the best site for fly fishing.
For funding, he is looking to the Federal Government’s allocation for conservation of the kelah, some RM30mil of which was awarded in 2002 to Universiti Sains Malaysia for its kelah project at Taman Negara in collaboration with the National Parks and Wildlife Protection Department.
Local-based conservation group the Global Environment Centre (GEC) came into the picture last March under a three-year programme on Community Participation in River Management. The project is funded by the Netherlands Government through
Wetlands International as well as support from the Danish Government.
With a shared interest in stakeholder participation in environmental management, particularly that of the local community, GEC developed the supporting subproject Conservation of Biodiversity of the Nenggiri River System through Community Action.
The aims are to “enhance protection and wise use of biodiversity of the Nenggiri river system and to develop partnerships with local communities and other stakeholders, including the enhancement of local welfare and livelihoods”.
Besides Kustem’s Prof Dr Mohd Azmi, who is researching the kelah population, GEC has engaged Universiti Putra Malaysia’s Assoc Prof Dr Mohd Shahwahid Othman to document the socio-economic status and needs of the river communities. There are 8,000 villagers, the majority of whom are the Temiar orang asli, whose life and livelihood depend on the river.
Though the grant from the Netherlands Government ended last month, GEC intends to continue with the project as it sees in it the potential as a demonstration model on how community involvement is crucial to both protection of biodiversity and sustainable
development, befitting the phrase, “Invest in tomorrow, protect today.”