The federal government has directed relevant authorities to streamline the import and export of falcons, ensuring that birds that are brought into Pakistan are taken back by their owners and not exchanged.
In a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Management Authority on September 4, a Ministry of Climate Change representative stressed the need to tag falcons with microchips and identification passports, Dawn News reported.
Officials were hopeful that these actions will prevent the exchange or illegal trade of the birds and added, “This is a transit permission, not related to the commercial trade of species.”
The development came after previous incidents where Gulf princes took young falcons along with them and abandoned injured and aged birds, which were later illegally trapped in Pakistan and sold on the country’s black market; this raised concerns about wildlife exploitation, prompting strict rules to protect the birds.
Another foreign hunter has hunted down a markhor in Pakistan with a license that preservation experts say helps in increasing the population of the endangered animal.
During the third trophy hunt, an American citizen, Robert Myles Hall, hunted a Kashmiri Markhor at the Gahirat-Golen community game for a trophy permit of $125,000.
The animal was reportedly about eight years old while the horns of the giant four-legged wild goat was around 38 inches.
According to Geo news, officials have claimed that the population of Kashmir Markhor has increased during the recent years, owing to community-based conservation.
Three hunting trophy licences are issued every year for Markhor hunting. 80 per cent of the total price is divided among local communities and 20 per cent is granted to the national exchequer.
Markhor is kept under the protection of local as well as international law like the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).
In October last year, 2023, Deron James Millman won a bid of $232,000 — the highest in history.
The government has reportedly issued special permits to seven-members of Dubai’s royal family to hunt the internationally protected Houbara bustard during the 2020-21 hunting season.
As per details, the permit has been issued to Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum and six other members of the ruling family including the crown prince, deputy ruler and finance and industries minister, deputy police chief, an army official, two other members of the royal family, and a businessman.
The hunting permits were reportedly issued by Prime Minister Imran Khan himself who earlier opposed the hunting of rare bird, while in opposition.
It is pertinent to add here that local citizens are not allowed to hunt the migratory bird wrongly prized as an aphrodisiac and classified as vulnerable by conservationists.
Talking about the hunting of the Houbara bustard Muhammad bin Naveed, an animal rights activist and member of Friends of Islamabad Zoo said: “Houbara bustards have become an unfortunate tool for so-called diplomacy with our Arab allies where again we are using animals and their lives to play politics.”
He further added: “No government in the past or now has stood up to the killing of Houbara bustards by Arab royal families simply because they pay a lot to be here and contribute to the local economy. I think we, as a nation, and our Arab allies need to think if such activities have any place in the 21st century and why we are using animals to propagate outdated traditions that are not even a part of our culture.”
Earlier in December 2020, it was reported that at least 18 Saudi and Qatari royals, including Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, will visit Pakistan to hunt the rare houbara bustard after the confirmation of their special hunting licences.
According to a report in The Express Tribune, the culprit Mohammad Essa was arrested while he was on his way home in the Hoper village of district Nagar. A wildlife official said that Essa’s car was raided on a tip-off and about 30 kg of meat was discovered in the vehicle.
The accused was arrested immediately and during an investigation, it was revealed that he used to supply meat to some government officials and other influential people to oblige them.
An official statement said that the culprit was presented before a forest magistrate/DFO Gibran Haider on Wednesday where he confessed to killing over 100 ibex. The magistrate sentenced him to one-year imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs140,000 under the Wildlife Act 1975.
The arrest sent waves of shock in the region, where trophy hunting was believed to have discouraged illegal hunting of such precious wild species. The long-horned animal is one of the 18 rare species for which a hunting permit is officially allowed in G-B under the trophy hunting programme. Last year the hunting fee was about Rs110,000.
The Himalayan ibex is native to the Karakoram, Hindukush and Himalayan mountain ranges of Gilgit-Baltistan.
Man arrested for dragging dog in Karachi
Meanwhile, a man was arrested in Karachi for dragging a dog with his car. According to ACF Animal Rescue, the incident took place on Siraj-ud-Daula Road, near Alamgir Masjid in Karachi. When some people behind the car tried to stop the car and save the dog, the person behind the wheel just drove faster.
The dog was dragged along until he died.
A video of the incident went viral on social media, sparking public outrage following which the authorities took immediate notice and sprang into action.
Thank you so much Sir. You have given us light in so much darkness. We hope the RIGHT person is punished. This is the first time ever that justice has been served so quickly for a case about an animal and we hope this sets an example for others that #AnimalCruelty is inexcusable
— ACF Animal Rescue (@ACFAnimalRescue) June 3, 2020
A man was sentenced to jail for eight months by the Hunza wildlife magistrate for illegally hunting two Himalayan ibex cubs.
According to Dawn, the Gilgit-Baltistan wildlife department had discovered the carcasses of ibex cubs during the inspection of a vehicle at Ganish bridge on the Karakoram Highway in Hunza area. The officials seized the carcasses and arrested Rehmat Khan of Altit area.
The DFO of the area shared that the poacher hunted the ibex cubs in the surroundings of Attabad Lake before attempting to transport their carcasses to Gilgit. He revealed that the wildlife department with the help of police seized the carcasses and hunting gear. The poacher was handed eight months imprisonment under the Wildlife Preservation Act, 1975.
Meanwhile, the Khunjerab Village Organisation has accused personnel of Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) to have hunted three Himalayan ibexes in Khunjerab National Park in upper Hunza. They claimed that the FWO personnel killed ibexes after cordoning off the area, and took away the carcasses, adding that they have substantial evidence to prove their claims.
A Spanish hunter in Gilgit has killed the third markhor of the season after paying a whopping $83,500 as the permit fee, ARY reported.
According to Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) Wildlife Department, Carlo Pasco successfully hunted a flared-horned markhor in the conservation area.
The hunting fees for different local species were decided in November last year as the Wildlife Department auctioned off the permits for markhor for $83,500. In 2018-19, the hunters paid $110,000 for hunting the animal.
The Wildlife Department claims that 80 per cent of the amount paid by hunters is given to the local community to invest in themselves and the conversation of these animals. The remaining 20 per cent is deposited to the national exchequer.
Pakistan’s national animal, markhor, is a large Capra species native to Central Asia, Karakoram and the Himalayas. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List, it is listed as a near-threatened species since 2015.
Earlier on December 12, an Italian citizen had hunted the first markhor of the season.
Special permits have been issued by the federal government to King of Bahrain Sheikh Hamad bin Isa bin Salman al Khalifa and five of his family members to hunt the internationally-protected houbara bustard during the 2019-20 hunting season. The permits were delivered to the Embassy of the Kingdom of Bahrain in the federal capital and had the names of hunters and the areas allocated to them.
According to a report in Dawn News, the king and his hunting party which includes his uncle, his country’s interior minister, adviser on defence, cousins, and other people have been granted special permission to hunt the endangered bird in different districts of Pakistan including Jamshoro district, Sujawal district, Naushahro Feroze district in Sindh, Jaffarabad district in Balochistan, Tando Mohammad Khan, Hyderabad and Malir (excluding Malir Cantonment and Dhabeji areas) districts.
Under a code of conduct issued by the foreign ministry, a hunter can hunt 100 houbara bustards in a 10-day hunting spree during the three-month-long hunting season between Nov 1, 2019 and Jan 31, 2020.
Though the houbara bustard belongs to the colder central Asian region, every winter it migrates southwards towards the relatively warm environment here.
Ruthless hunting by Arab hunters has resulted in a sharp decline in its population because of which it is protected under various international nature conservation conventions and a ban on its hunting has been imposed – Pakistanis are not allowed to hunt this bird.
Previously, Prime Minister Imran Khan had been very critical of Nawaz Sharif’s government for permitting the hunting of the rare bird.
1. PTI’s Rind joins locals protesting in Balochistan ag Houbara Bustard hunting permission given to Qatari royals on direct NS intervention
