Last bird in the sky

Pakistan, in league with Arab hunters, may well be principal reason for accelerated annihilation of houbara bustards.

A society must cater to the needs and protection of those who stand at the end of the queue –– the weakest, the poorest and the most vulnerable. In the kingdom of birds, the houbara bustard, taxonomically classified as ‘chlamydotis undulata’, could easily fall in the same category. Every year, some 30,000 of these graceful birds arrive in Pakistan, enriching our harsh and arid ecosystem with their breathtaking beauty, serenity and joyful presence.

Little do these birds know that for most of them it would be their last winter. The Arab Sheikhs arrive with the intention to kill the last bird in the sky. Their only dream in life: that the houbara meat might one day deliver on its aphrodisiac myth.

Prince Fahd bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz al Saud went on a wild rampage and killed 2,000 houbara bustards in 21 days. In his search for the mythical qualities of the houbara, he exceeded the hunting limit by 10 times the amount permitted as mentioned in the two (illegal) permits he had obtained from the foreign ministry. This is how they treat the piece of paper called a ‘permit’ in Pakistan. We doled out 30 such permits (each for 100 birds) to our Arab benefactors this year. Judging from this, one can estimate that some 30,000 houbara bustards must have been shot out of the skies by our Arab friends. That is almost the entire population of houbaras who made the mistake of seeking refuge in our hostile country this year.

The people of Pakistan have been deeply disgusted and pained by this barbaric annual slaughter, the submissiveness and senselessness of the Pakistani government and the rapidly declining number of houbara bustards. Numerous media reports and citizens’ protests have fallen on deaf years. Finally in January 2014, a private citizen, supported by advocate Kalim Ilyas (pleading the case on pro-bono basis), moved the green bench of the Lahore High Court for a complete ban on hunting houbara bustards. On January 23, the court directed the federal government to restrain the permit holders from hunting in Punjab and noted that the permits issued by the foreign ministry had no lawful authority.

Instead of showing any remorse, the foreign ministry decided to sleep over the court orders. It could neither place the names of the 33 permit holders on court records nor did it inform the foreigners to discontinue their unlawful hunting. On the contrary, the foreign ministry came out with lame excuses such as ‘administrative difficulties’ for its failure to act. The court in a judgment on February 10 restrained all 33 permit holders from any further hunting till the next hearing.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources estimates the birds’ global population is at about 110,000 and declining at an annual rate of about 20-29 per cent due to poaching and unregulated hunting. Pakistan, in league with its Arab terminators, may well be the principal reason for the accelerated and unrecorded annihilation of the endangered houbara species.

The yearly houbara carnage is not an isolated disaster for Pakistan. It is accompanied by large scale environmental degradation and lawlessness that ought not to be tolerated by any sovereign state. At the end of the hunting season, there are scores of unregistered, non-duty paid foreign license plate vehicles that the visitors leave behind as gifts, bribe or charity to the local hosts and officials.

It is in this backdrop, that one must acknowledge the efforts of an unassuming and conscientious divisional forest officer of the Balochistan forest and wildlife department, Jaffar Baloch. He did what the four provincial and the federal government could not do in the last 60 years. He simply told the truth about the facade of permits and the number of birds that are actually hunted as compared to what is stated on the papers. It is he who exposed the misdeeds of the prince who hunted 2,100 birds in 20 days. It is people like Baloch who are the real heroes of Pakistan. People like him should replace the leadership that passively sits in the wildlife departments or unlawfully churns outs permits in the foreign ministry.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 29^th, 2014.

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