A wild world

Tigers can be found in the fauna-rich forests here- file picture
Tigers can be found in the fauna-rich forests here- file picture

FROM tigers to tapir, more than half the mammal species found in the country are present in Ulu Muda area.
Studies and surveys from a scientific expedition to the Ulu Muda Forest Reserve in March 2003 also found that these forests host six of 10 primate species and 42 of 54 reptile species.

The dense jungles are home to 78 % squirrel species, 53 percent bat species, 175 bird species, seven out of 10 hornbill species.

Scientists also found myriad river and lake fish and herds of elephants which make the reserve a major reservoir for wildlife.

The reserve itself is over 100,000 ha in size and is spread of the Sik, Padang Terap and Baling districsts, adjacent to Thailand in the northeast and Perak in the south.
The national importance of the Ulu Muda complex of forests was first highlighted by a WWF proposal for a Kedah Conservation Strategy in 1984, say papers in Hutan Simpan Ulu Muda, Kedah: Pengurusan, Persekitaran Fizikal dan Biologi, a publication of findings during the 2003 survey.

The area was also been identified as a critical area for conservation under the Economic Planning Unit's Malaysian National Conservation Strategy in 1993.

The strategy recommended that Ulu Muda be protected as a National or State park.

It has also been proposed as trans-frontier protected area as it lies on the Thai-Malaysia border.

In 1996, the National Ecotourism Plan recognized Ulu Muda as a potentially important nature tourism destination.

The forest here is also a storehouse of medical plants with surveys of just small sections uncovering about 56 species.