Endangered species: Notices issued on plea to cancel hunting permits of Gulf dignitaries

Petitioner claims authorities took over his land to allow foreigners to hunt precious birds.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has issued notices to the foreign affairs ministry, the environment ministry and the provincial wildlife protection department on a petition seeking cancellation of permits issued to the foreign dignitaries who illegally hunt endangered houbara bustard.

A division bench, comprising justices Ahmed Ali M Sheikh and Syed Muhammad Farooq Shah, issued notices for December 2 on a petition filed seeking cancellation of hunting permits issued by the federal and provincial governments and strict enforcement of the wildlife laws to protect endangered species from complete extinction.

Lal Khan Chandio had taken the authorities to court for illegally taking over his land to use as a hunting site for foreign dignitaries, and poor implementation of environmental and wildlife protection laws. He named the federal secretaries of the foreign affairs and interior ministries, the provincial chief secretary, the secretary of the forest and wildlife department, chief provincial conservator, the home secretary, Sindh IG, the Rangers director-general, the federal board of revenue chairperson Nasser Abdullah Hussain Lootah, Muhammad Abdul Khaleq Al-Khoory, Muhammad Shahbaz Khan Nawab Ghaibi Sardar Khan Chandio and Nawabzada Burhan Khan Chandio as respondents.

Advocate Mureed Ali Shah said the private respondents in connivance with government officials have taken over thousands of acres of his land to hunt protected animals, such as the houbara bustard, ibex, markhor, chinkara, crocodile, bulbul, urial, etc. Dignitaries from United Arab Emirates (UAE) have established posts and are patrolling the area while disallowing the land owners, peasants, workers, tenants and shepherd in those areas to look after their lands, cattle and crops, he claimed, adding that cultivation has been stopped from November this year to February 2015.

The government had issued 12 hunting permits to the foreigners to bring in about 815 trained falcons with them to kill the houbara bustard during year 2012-2013, he claimed, adding that two of these permits for 135 falcons were presented to the Saudi royal family, five permits for 200 falcons to the royal family of Bahrian, two permits for 250 falcons to the UAE and three permits for 230 falcons were issued to the royal family of Qatar.

The permit allows the holder to hunt no more than 100 houbara bustards in as many as 10 days and that too in specific hunting areas. "But, unfortunately, the Arabs dignitaries kept hunting the birds for 21 days, most of them from the protected sanctuaries, national parks with the help of the influential persons, the politicians and the wildlife field staff, who get gifts and bags of money," he said.

The bench also issued notices to the deputy attorney general and the provincial advocate general to file the comments of these authorities by the next hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2014.