Margalla Hills to have leopard reserve

Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam said on Friday that Asia’s first-ever ‘leopard reserve’ will be established in Margalla Hills National Park soon.

Addressing participants of a monsoon plantation drive under Clean Green Pakistan organised by Pak Steel at Pak Farid Park, he said the protected area of Islamabad has become the permanent new habitat of the wild cats that earlier used to descend to the National Park only during winter seasons and would return to a higher altitude in summers.

Amin said that a proper mechanism would be devised for controlled and safe mobility into the leopard reserve through information guides and by deploying guards to avoid any human-wildlife conflict. The SAPM planted a pine tree sapling in the Park where 300 saplings were planted.

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The PM’s adviser said that Pak Farid Park was one of the only public-private partnership initiatives being materialised to protect the environment. “It is being developed on the Capital Development Authority (CDA) land and is well maintained,” Amin said, adding that it was the only Park that remained opened and available to the public for recreation throughout the Covid-19 lockdown.

He underscored that the private sector was one of the major stakeholders of the government, as it has corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds and efficiency to execute projects in time with the desired output.

While shedding light on climate change risks highlighted in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, he said around 14,000 scientists worked on that report and have warned of climatic catastrophes in case of unabated mutilation of the green cover all over the world.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 29^th, 2021.