NILGIRIS: An awareness programme about the critically endangered hump-backed mahseer (Tor remadevii) was held for tribal people and forest staff in and around the Moyar River.
Officials of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) held the programme with the help of scientists from the Advanced Institute for Wildlife Conservation (AIWC) and Tamil Nadu Dr J Jayalalithaa Fisheries University, Chennai.
The freshwater fish is endemic to the Western Ghats and found only in the Moyar River.
A special training programme was also held on March 12 and 13 at Theppakkadu and Thengumarahada within the Sathymangalam Tiger Reserve for the Anti-Poaching Watchers working in Masinagudi, Singara, Sigur, Nilgiri Eastern Slope (NES), Kargudi (in MTR) and Bhavani Sagar forest ranges.
Scientist Dr Shameer of the AIWC along with Assistant Professors E Suresh and A Pavin Kumar of the Fisheries University created awareness among the forest department staff and the participating tribal persons on the distribution of the fish.
"We have given training about the identification of the fish by noticing the hump above the neck. During patrol, the staff will advise the tribals or tourists not to capture the fish and leave them in the river itself if they catch them in hooks or fish nets," said V Rajan, Range Officer of the Masinagudi Forest.
Assistant Professor E Suresh said that they imparted knowledge to the tribes on artificial fish production as part of increasing the number of fish, which has a critically endangered status now.
"Due to the uncontrolled fishing in Moyar river, along with mining and river fragmentation, the hump-backed mahseer is found only in a few places in the Moyar River. There is an urgent need to protect the fish species from extinction. If we stop eating fish by sourcing them from the Moyar River and, at the same time, start fingerling production of humpback mahseer by artificial cultivation, we can push the fish status to 'least concern' and 'endangered' from the present status of 'critically endangered'," said Suresh.
(Hump-backed mahseer is also known as hump-backed bahseer.)