Haleji Lake’s birds fly home

With Rs0.5 million, wildlife sanctuary gets a long-overdue ecological restoration

HALEJI LAKE: With the ecological restoration of one of the most famous Ramsar Sites in Pakistan after 26 years, Haleji Lake's birds have returned - and all it took was an investment of half a million rupees.

Around 90 kilometres from Karachi, the serene lake, a favourite spot for thousands of native and migratory birds, is a stark contrast to the bustling city. Notified as a wildlife sanctuary by the Sindh government and re-notified in 1977, it was designated as a Ramsar Site — a wetland of international importance — when Pakistan ratified the Ramsar Convention in 1976.

Renowned for its beauty and importance, it was not just the birds that came to Haleji Lake — the Duke of Edinburgh, who visited it in 1982, declared it a bird-watchers' paradise, while other national and foreign dignitaries made their way to it as well.

But the sanctuary has largely been ignored since 1994, when the flow of fresh water to the lake was cut off. One of the major reasons for its decline was the installation of the right bank outfall drain, which carries waste from nearby areas. But, more than that, according to a government official, the problem was that there was no political will to restore the lake.

After 1994, fewer and fewer birds arrived at the lake each year. In 2019, only around 4,000 birds, including migratory ones, were recorded. "This winter, the number has crossed 60,000 birds," Sindh wildlife department (SWD) conservator Javed Ahmed Mahar told The Express Tribune.

A total of 112 species of birds have been recorded, of which 36 species are native ones, according to Mahar. Smiling, he claimed that the number of birds coming to Haleji Lake would double in the coming months — and would reach at least 200,000 birds next winter.

A Reuters file photo.

Taking up the task

In recent months, the matter of Haleji Lake's restoration surfaced when the Sindh government decided to undertake the project in order to restore the additional water supply to Karachi. Four different provincial departments took up the task, including the SWD, Sindh tourism department, Sindh forest department and the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KSWB).

While the KWSB focused on restoring the additional water supply line to the provincial capital, the tourism department turned to constructing suites by the lake, to draw visitors to the province.

Meanwhile the forest department has concentrated on planting trees in the sanctuary — though not the wild fruit trees that grow in the area. "I think the plantation effort was launched without any planning," commented a visitor, watching forest department staff water the neem trees newly planted along the lakeside.

The SWD, on the other hand, had the aim of increasing the bird population at the lake, instructing its staff deployed at the sanctuary to focus on birds and other wildlife.

The question of funds

In the last quarter of 2019, the Sindh government allocated Rs12 million to the SWD for Haleji Lake's restoration, including the renovation of the information centre located at the sanctuary. But, according to a wildlife department official, not a single rupee has been released to the department yet.

"The finance department has its own logic for releasing the approved budget," said the official. He did not share what the logic behind the delay might be.

On Tuesday, ahead of a visit by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, dozens of government officials arrived at the sanctuary. None of them seemed to be sure how the lake had been restored if the funds had not yet been released.

"An immediate fund available with the department was released," another official told The Express Tribune. He explained that the beauty of the lake had been restored with a mere Rs500,000, adding that a major chunk of that amount had been spent on spreading feed for the birds.

Mahar, on the other hand, said that there were no official problems with the restoration project. "Everyone is on board. We all want to restore the lake and that is the top priority of the government."

Meanwhile, the PPP chairperson, during his visit, instructed the Sindh government to rebuild the road leading to Haleji Lake from the National Highway. Although it is only about 6 kilometres long, the condition of the road means that it takes visitors about half an hour to reach the sanctuary from the main road. 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 24^th, 2020.