Houbara Bustards In Peril Again

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B Khan, Houbara Bustards, Houbara Bustards being hunted in Pakistan, Houbara Bustards in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Supreme Court Houbara Bustards

Rare Houbara Bustards are back on death row. Under government pressure, the Supreme Court has reversed the hunting ban it had placed on these birds in August 2015 – a ban that was enthusiastically greeted, after many years of lobbying, by environmental bodies throughout the country, as well as overseas.

Now a mere five months later, the same court has acceded to government claims that the continuance of the ban would adversely affect Pakistan’s foreign relations with Arab countries, despite the fact that the Houbara Bustard is on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s ‘Red List’ and is a worldwide ‘Protected Species’.

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Saving Pakistan’s Wildlife

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B Khan, baby Ibex in Gilgit-Baltistan, Blue Sheep, Dolphins in Pakistan, hunting in Pakistan, Hunza, ibex, ibex twisted horns, IUCN, Kunjerab National Park, markhor, Pakistan's endangered species, Pakistan's wildlife, Saving Pakistan’s Wildlife, World Wildlife Fund Pakistan

The recent furore over the illegal captivity of a baby Ibex in Gilgit-Baltistan by a government official has highlighted the plight of wildlife, rare or otherwise, in a country where few people care.

In this particular case, the captor held onto the Ibex for 10 days before forest officials managed to rescue it and release it in the Kunjerab National Park, where it probably galloped off into obscurity.

Floodwater Management

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Amena Nadeem, asphalt, concrete, dams, deforestation, diversion channels, drainage systems, flood defences, floodwater management, global climate change, Rooftop gardens, Rotterdam, Rotterdam Museum Park, storm water

Due to global climate change and rapid urban growth, Pakistan is hit by catastrophic floods every year, causing millions of people to suffer massive losses, be they physical, emotional or financial.

Floodwater management must therefore become part of the overall sustainable master planning of urban and rural areas, and several solutions can be employed to minimise the damage caused by floods.

Shawls Of Shame

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antelope, B Khan, Chiru, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, Indian Kashmir, Ladakh, Nepal, shatooshes, Tibet, Tibetan Antelope, World Wildlife Fund

Dealing in death does not faze a criminal percentage of Pakistani shawl dealers bent on profiteering from a small percentage of fashionistas for whom the slaughter of endangered antelopes means zilch. The shawls in question are the world renowned shatooshes; their weaving is so fine that they can pass through a ring.

To have such a shawl or scarf as part of a wedding dowry is still deemed a ‘must’ by people with more money than respect for disappearing wildlife. As a result of this ‘under the counter’ trade, the Chiru or Tibetan Antelope is on the verge of extinction. Shatooshes are woven from the silky undercoat of the Chiru, yet despite an international ban on trading in this, poachers in Tibet and Ladakh in India, where migratory antelopes spend the summer, are hunting them down to meet market demand for their precious fur. The Chiru must be killed for the fur to be collected and the species has already been wiped out in Nepal.

Have A Safe Bakra Eid!

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accident, animal excreta, animals, Bakra Eid, bakras, communicable diseases, disease, Dr Summaiya Syed-Tariq, ER duty, incision wounds, injuries, Karachi, livestock, Pakistan, Police Surgeon’s Office, sacrifice

An accident I witnessed a few days ago prompted me to write this piece.

Two brothers aged 15 and 18, were walking their bakras; while the older one managed to control his animal, the younger one was clearly struggling. To cut a long story short, the bakra decided on a dash to freedom. The little boy fell flat on his face and then was dragged on the road for a considerable distance before he let go of the leash! The poor boy was in a sorry state, as you can well imagine.

Cutting Trees Is Dangerous

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(peepal), atmospheric pollution, B Khan, bauhinia (kachnar), bees, birds, cassia fistula (Indian laburnum), City District Government, climate change, Conocarpus erectus, cropland, Cutting  trees, decimating tree populations, drought, environmental balance, Ethiopia, ficus indica (banyan), ficus religiosa, global weather patterns, green belts, indigenous trees, insects, Karachi, Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, melia adadiracta (neem), melia azadarach (Persian lilac), money generating developments, Monsoon, palm trees, planet, plant trees, poinciana regia (gulmohar), pollen counts, tamarindus indica (imli)

With thousands of people and millions of acres of cropland adversely affected by this year’s ferocious monsoon, climate change is a harsh reality. Therefore, there is a drastic need to plant trees in all our cities. Yet the authorities, with Karachi being a prime example, appear set on wiping out green belts and cutting down trees to make way for billboards and other money generating developments.

Trees provide a necessary environmental balance without which the planet cannot survive. They fight atmospheric pollution, provide homes for birds, bees, insects and other life-forms and – this is of extreme importance – assist in regulating global and regional weather patterns which, without enough trees, run disastrously amok. Few people appear to realise that decimating tree populations in our cities carries a dreadful penalty: the cutting of even a single tree is a contributory factor to climate change.

Saving Pakistan’s Snow Leopards

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big cats, Central Karakorum National Park, extinction, globally endangered species, high-altitude animals, IUCN Red Book, Karakorum mountain, Save Our Species, Snow Leopard Foundation, snow leopard habitat, Snow Leopards in Pakistan, Tian Shan mountain, WWF-P

Pakistan is lucky to be home to approximately 300 snow leopards – a globally endangered species and listed in the IUCN Red Book as such.

There are thought to be only 7,000 to 10,000 of these magnificent high-altitude animals remaining in the world and those indigenous to North Pakistan were, until relatively recently, hunted down by trophy seekers and local people who blamed, often wrongly, these creatures for any loss of livestock even if they died as a result of illness or malnourishment.

Keeping The Creepy Crawlies Away – Naturally

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B Khan, basil, citronella, crawlies, cupboards, dengue fever, eucalyptus oil, lemon, lemon grass, menthol, mosquitoes, Neem, oil burner, sinus, summer, toxic chemicals

Resorting to the use of toxic chemicals to keep creepy crawlies out of the house during the summer is definitely not a good idea as, inevitably, humans and pets breathe in the fumes too, which is why it makes sense to deploy the deterrents so wonderfully provided by nature.

A few drops of pure eucalyptus oil added to a bowl of water and placed on windowsills and by doorways is all it takes to stop those potentially lethal – remember dengue fever– mosquitoes from zooming into the house. The eucalyptus oil floats on the water and so prevents mosquitoes from laying their eggs in it, but do keep the bowl topped up with the oil on a regular basis.

The Prosopis: Undervalued And Ignored

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altitudes, animal keepers, B Khan, blooms, boats, botanical family, camel thorn, Charcoal, climate change, coastal, desert, drought-tolerant, fence posts, fertile, florists, fodder, foothills, houses, jahu, kandi, leaf canopy, lowlands, mimosa, nitrogen, nomadic herders, nutrient value, perfumed, Peshawar, plains, prosopis, prosopis cineraria, prosopis farcta, Punjab, saline-tolerant, sand dunes, shrubs, thorns, tool handles, urban, villagers

People ignore them, refer to them as a nuisance or even call them a ‘blot on the landscape’, but the botanical family ‘prosopis’ serves many useful purposes and should, especially in desert, coastal and urban areas, be encouraged to grow.

There are quite a number of prosopis species scattered throughout Pakistan, but although they prefer the lowlands, plains and foothills to higher altitudes, they are rarely found there.

Harness The Wind And Sun

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alternative energy, batteries, brake-shoe, coastal, electric current, electricity, Energy security, installation, inverter, kinetic energy, low-maintenance, photovoltaic cells, price hikes, solar, solar panels, sunlight, sustainable energy, tube lights, Wajeeh-ul-Hassan Naqvi, water pump, watts, wind power, wind turbine

Energy security and periodic price hikes are key concerns for most residents and as a result they have started to actively explore cheaper and more sustainable energy sources.

The average Pakistani mid-sized home is estimated to utilise four tube lights, four fans, a TV, fridge, computer and water pump, which require approximately 1,000 watts of power. For such households, solar and wind power are two effective alternative energy sources that do not require very large investments and can produce enough power to make homes self-sufficient with regard to energy generation.