Villagers living along Sungai Batang Oya are now very fearful of going to the river to do what they have always done—fish.

They are also keeping close tabs on their children to ensure they do not swim in the river. Their number one fear: crocodiles.

This has prompted Dalat assemblywoman Datuk Fatimah Abdullah to call for a culling of crocodiles in the river to reduce the population of these ferocious creatures.

The call was made following a crocodile attack at Kampung Bakong, a fishing village along that river, on Friday.

On that day, villager Sili Esmail @ Ismail, 60, went out to fish at about 8am. Three hours later, villagers found his longboat drifting near the river bank, and there was no sign of him.

The villagers noticed bite marks on the longboat, while the paddle was broken into two.

A missing person police report was then lodged at 11am, and this led to an almost eight-hour search mounted by firemen, police, and civil defence force (APM) personnel.

Villagers also joined in the search-and-rescue operation using 21 longboats.

Sili’s body was found at about 7.20pm that very evening.

Fatimah, who is also Minister of Welfare, Women and Community Wellbeing, told The Borneo Post that last year, a similar incident happened at a nearby village.

In last year’s case, the body was found the following day.

“Sadness and anger. Those are the sentiments of my people now. The wife of the victim also joined the search. Imagine the agony she had to go through,” said Fatimah, who was there when the search was conducted.

She said many people living along villages and settlements along Sungai Batang Oya were fishermen.

“Many of them depend on the river and sea for their living. For Sili’s case, he had gone out looking for prawns,” she said.

Fatimah related that when she was young, she used to swim in the river with her sisters, cousins and friends. She also used to follow her grandmother and grandfather to fish or to look for prawns.

“Once in a while, we saw crocodiles drifting, but they were not known to hurt people. Now it is a different scenario.  The villagers are now so fearful of them, and we have to prohibit our children from swimming in the river.”

Fatimah hoped culling could be done to control the crocodiles’ population.

“I also hope they will be more frequent patrols on the river to drive crocodiles away and to ensure our rivers are safe for fishing.”

Source:
courtesy of THE BORNEO POST

by Lian Cheng

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