Smuggling bid foiled: Three endangered falcons rescued

The birds were being transported from Peshawar to Karachi, from where they were to be smuggled abroad

KARACHI: Sindh Wildlife Department officials claim to have rescued three endangered female falcons that were being transported from Peshawar to Karachi, on Monday night.

A raiding party of the wildlife department, acting on a tip off, caught three persons, identified as Abdul Nabi, Abdul Razaq and Ali Gul, who were illegally transporting three female falcons to Karachi from Peshawar. They were apprehended from a passenger coach on Super Highway near Hyderabad.

The smugglers, who had stayed in Jacobabad, also made a deal with buyers but could not go ahead with it due to the cost of the birds. Later, they tried to transport the birds to Karachi from where they would be smuggled outside Pakistan, sources told The Express Tribune.



Interestingly, the smugglers who possessed a dealer's permit, tried to justify that their transportation from one area to another was legal but the wildlife department's officials claimed that it was a dealer's permit and was valid for Karachi only.

"We can't allow anyone to transport birds from one area to another on such permits," said Wajid Ali Shaikh, the in-charge of the raiding party. "All the birds have been confiscated," he added.

Due to lack of security arrangements in Sindh, most smugglers from the Punjab and KP prefer Sindh as a safe route to smuggle endangered birds and animals. Recently, the provincial wildlife department has increased monitoring over the transportation of such activities.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21^st, 2015.