Last week had dinner with Mandy( my sis-in-law in Langkawi, hardcore kayaker) and she mentioned that they just got their Langkawi chapter of MNS going, under the Kedah branch. We talked about the Bakun rescue project for a while and she was really disappointed that so far the authorities have not even responded. And worse still MNS and WWF have been totally ineffective. We thought that its possible too to patrol the flooded areas by kayak to save fuel and also look thouroughly instead of flying past on a dinghy. A kayak can move at about 4-5kmph, so you can patrol about 30km per day without consuming any petrol, a big headache to source upstream. Not bad, maybe should get some volunteers from the various kayaking clubs in the country, great opportunity and unique challenge for their kayakers. Then I remembered that Ahmad told me he will try to do something with his own channels.
Ahmad returned my call on last friday(13/3) and told me that he may have something, nothing else but still a hope, since Ahmad is not a person likely to say something without good reason. He mentioned he had visitors a couple of weeks who may be able to help but he missed them. So there is still a glimmer of hope, not that I have lost all but things do look a bit gloomy at the moment.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
2009 looks bad.
All my efforts to try to get approval from the authorities have come to naught. MNS has been totally ineffective. In fact I heard that they are not in the good books of the Sarawak authorities so its useless to go through them. Ahmad has kindly tried a few of his own channels but nothing has happened. The flooding should start towards the end of this year. So far it has been very wet, La Nina?, so hopefully it will be dry then. Thats all we can hope for. This is a really low moment in the project so far and it looks like the whole rescue effort will have to be called off or should we proceed without approval. Just go in there and try to rescue as many animals as we can. Really wonder if there is a God.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
New Possibilities
Things are hardly moving on getting approvals from the Sarawak authorities. Maybe we should look closer to home and try to do something for the wildlife in Tregganu and Pahang where the two new dams are coming up and scheduled for completion in 2012. At least here we have the contacts in the Wildlife Dept ( Perhilitan) to make it possible.
New Hydro Plants in West Malaysia
13th Oct: The News Straits Times reported that TNB( our national utility company) will be building one new plant each in Pahang( Ulu Jelai) and Trengganu.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
New Book
Sept 24th: To my pleasant surprise the book I ordered from Alibris arrived, barely been a week. " Time is short and the water rises" by John Walsh is about his gallant efforts at the Afobaka Dam in Surinam. A total of over 10,000 animals was rescued in Operation Gwamba over 18 months. This account is closer to our own situation because it happened in the rainforest of Surinam, unlike Operation Noah which took place in the savannah of Africa.
Finished the book the same night and gleaned a lot of helpful info from it. Very funny actually, like how they managed to subdue a giant armadillo with a ton of tranquiliser and ten men. They hired over 40 workers at one point and everyone was paid, down to the hunting dogs used to scare the animals out of the bush. Deers also proved to be troublesome as to be expected. The waters covered a flattish area that is roughly square in shape and over 600 square miles in size. The furthest distance it covered, out from the dam is less than 50 miles and its only about 140 ft deep at the deepest. Bakun will be something like 600 ft deep but " only " 700sq Km( 273 sq miles). However a much longer section of the river will be flooded as the river valley is steep and narrow( according to Google Earth topo data). We will have to travel in excess of 100km upstream. Since Bakun is only half the size, we can approximate the number of animals we can rescue at 5000??. Well its just a figure to start with. Hopefully most of the ground dwellers can flee up the steep sides of the valley out of harms way, leaving us to catch those trapped on islands and in trees. In desperation a porcupine can climb a tree.
One thing we must learn from this book is that resuce efforts at canopy level is tough. The boats will get stuck everywhere. All kinds of trapped hungry insects will be there to greet you. Fun. This is not the plains of Africa. And if the river has rapids we will have a tough time going upstream, until they are underwater. By then it may be too late for a lot of animals. Reading his account is quite sobering, I must take my hat off to the man. And we dont have to worry about Vampire bats, piranhas, all kinds of insects.
Some to the animals rescued:
3-fingered sloth 2104
armadillo 1051
monkeys 528
2-fingered sloth 840
Tortoise 973
Tree Porcupine 927
Porcupine 518
Deer 671
Tamandua Anteater 261
Pygmy " 161
Tapir 36
Jaguar 3
and Agoutis, peccarys,opposum, paca, capybara, etc, etc,.
Finished the book the same night and gleaned a lot of helpful info from it. Very funny actually, like how they managed to subdue a giant armadillo with a ton of tranquiliser and ten men. They hired over 40 workers at one point and everyone was paid, down to the hunting dogs used to scare the animals out of the bush. Deers also proved to be troublesome as to be expected. The waters covered a flattish area that is roughly square in shape and over 600 square miles in size. The furthest distance it covered, out from the dam is less than 50 miles and its only about 140 ft deep at the deepest. Bakun will be something like 600 ft deep but " only " 700sq Km( 273 sq miles). However a much longer section of the river will be flooded as the river valley is steep and narrow( according to Google Earth topo data). We will have to travel in excess of 100km upstream. Since Bakun is only half the size, we can approximate the number of animals we can rescue at 5000??. Well its just a figure to start with. Hopefully most of the ground dwellers can flee up the steep sides of the valley out of harms way, leaving us to catch those trapped on islands and in trees. In desperation a porcupine can climb a tree.
One thing we must learn from this book is that resuce efforts at canopy level is tough. The boats will get stuck everywhere. All kinds of trapped hungry insects will be there to greet you. Fun. This is not the plains of Africa. And if the river has rapids we will have a tough time going upstream, until they are underwater. By then it may be too late for a lot of animals. Reading his account is quite sobering, I must take my hat off to the man. And we dont have to worry about Vampire bats, piranhas, all kinds of insects.
Some to the animals rescued:
3-fingered sloth 2104
armadillo 1051
monkeys 528
2-fingered sloth 840
Tortoise 973
Tree Porcupine 927
Porcupine 518
Deer 671
Tamandua Anteater 261
Pygmy " 161
Tapir 36
Jaguar 3
and Agoutis, peccarys,opposum, paca, capybara, etc, etc,.
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