[FONT=Times New Roman]Our answer to Lake District
[FONT=Times New Roman]Soan Sakesar Valley is a good change from the usual vacation spots with its rich fauna and a serene environment
[FONT=Times New Roman]By Raheal Ahmad Siddiqui
[FONT=Times New Roman]2007 was officially declared as ‘Visit Pakistan Year’. So during the summer vacations, my family decided to make best use of this offer by heading for Northern Areas. But where exactly? Flights to Chitral, Gilgit and Skardu were booked for more than a month. Traveling by road through Swat, Malakand (if you are going to Chitral) and all along K.K.H was declared unsafe by friends. Militancy was the sole discouraging factor. I decided to play safe by staying back at Bahawalpur.
[FONT=Times New Roman]It was a difficult decision for the children who suggested that that we must spend a whole week in Murree. Denuded of the pine trees, hotch-potched by senseless high rising buildings, over crowded and choked with smog, Murree was immediately discarded. One could derive more pleasure walking through Orangi Town or the Machar (Mosquito) colony of Kemari in Karachi, than taking a stroll along the mall in Murree.
[FONT=Times New Roman]Help came from an unusual source. A friend in Khushab invited the family to Soan Sakesar Valley in his district. He consoled us by adding that Soan Sakesar is also ‘North by Northwest’ of Bahawalpur, a reference to the Hitchock thriller of early sixties.
[FONT=Times New Roman]Our first stop in Soan was Sodi-Jaiwala rest house, located at the foothills of the valley. Till 1970s, this rest house was surrounded by a thick forest, teeming with wildlife of all sorts. A perfect hunting lodge, where President Ayub Khan and Nawab of Kalabagh, the Governor of Punjab, used to camp whenever they were on a poaching expedition in this area. The heydays of this Rest House are over and now it only attracts occasional nature lovers like us.
[FONT=Times New Roman]A dark, threatening monsoon cloud engulfing the whole valley welcomed us. Cool breeze after a light shower provided us a perfect opportunity to take a late afternoon walk through the wooded paths. After sun set, logs and leaves were collected in front of the verandah to build a camp-fire.
[FONT=Times New Roman]Later at night, as I studied the Gazetteer of the Shahpur District (1897) under the lamp, the stillness was disturbed by croaking of frogs and an accessioned howl of the jackal – a grim reminder of the fact that about a century ago, this part of the salt range had a wide variety of fauna. According to the Gazetteer, these areas were infested by tigers, leopards, hyenas, wolves, jackals, wild-boars caracas and badgers (bijju). Though black-buck were rare but ravine-deer were fairly common along the lower slopes of the mountains. The most interesting animal from the sportsman’s point of view remained the mountain sheep or urial.
[FONT=Times New Roman]The colonial administrators, in order to provide good governance to their subjects, devised a system to exterminate wild animals which could cause bodily harm to their subjects or their cattle. A cash reward was announced by the government to be paid for the destruction of each animal. In the five years ending in 1882, rewards were paid for the killing of 3 tigers, 11 leopards and 742 wolves. By the end of 1895, the government reward was paid for 3 leopards and 152 wolves only. This shows a rapid decrease in the number of animals. Wanton poaching in the three decades from 1960 to 1990 accounted for complete extinction of whatever was left of these species. The valley and people of Soan stand out as the ultimate losers.
[FONT=Times New Roman]An early morning walk along the hill trail, amid cooing of doves and partridges and the thunder of clouds, was very refreshing. On our return we found the cook chasing a snake and before he could be stopped, the fatal blow was delivered. I retrieved the carcass for a closer examination. The children were excited and wanted to touch it. It was a full grown male karait. The cook begged us to hand over the carcass to him for the traditional burial i.e. crushing the head. If he will not do so, its mate, after deciphering the cook’s picture from the dead snakes eyes, will try to extract revenge. Superstitions die hard.
[FONT=Times New Roman]Between 1890 and 1895, on an average, Rs. 70 was paid each year for destruction of 435 snakes. For the one killed today, the cook was not going to get any reward from us.
[FONT=Times New Roman]After breakfast, our hosts guided us to Khabeki Lake, a beautiful site. Thereon we drove along a curving road, bobbing along the slopes, till the road took a downward plunge and ended in a lush green garden. This is one of the loveliest places in the entire Soan valley and is known as ‘Kun-Netty Gardens.’ Developed during the Raj and spread over 70 acres, the garden was laden with peaches, pomegranates, pears and vines climbing over other trees. The garden was not kept properly and the rest house had been in disuse for the last three decades.
[FONT=Times New Roman]Kun-Netty garden is a wealth of sylvan beauty and had it been in Greece (and not in District Khushab), surely Artemis, the Greek goddess of woodland, hunting and archery, and, paradoxically a defender of all wild animals would be found roaming in it with a band of attendant nymphs and would surely resist any intrusion in her affairs. The Romans called her Diana. Splashing sound drew my attention towards the fast flowing natural stream, which bisected the garden into two and a wooden bridge providing the needed connection. Instead of finding playful water-nymphs, we found two imps, our own children, who had plunged in the stream. A dip in the cool waters of this spring is a must for all picnickers.
[FONT=Times New Roman]In the afternoon we drove passed Nowshera Jadid in blinding downpour. As we moved further, a blue lake started spreading before us on the right. In order to enjoy the coolness of Ochali lake, we took a right turn on a newly constructed road which tears the lake into two unequal halves. A monumental board tells us that this road was recently constructed at a total cost of Rs. 4.5 millions from the funds provided by a lady Federal Minister from the area. Minutes later we came to a screeching halt. The road ended abruptly in the middle of the lake, thousand meters short of its ultimate destination i.e. the Village Chitta. Public exchequer seems brutally floundered. Political expediency could only be the logical answer to this act.
[FONT=Times New Roman]After crossing the Air Force security barrier, we started a rapid ascend. Thirty minutes later we stopped at Phulwari Rest House for a quick cup of hot tea. From the terrace of the rest house, one can have a panoramic view of the Soan Valley, where the Ochali Lake looked like a blue blotch in the horizon. The rest house is a reminiscence of the colonial era. In the nineteenth century, the present districts of Sargodha and Khushab were parts of one huge Shahpur District. Like Shimla, Ziarat, Fort Munroe, and a host of other hill stations developed across imperial India by the colonial rulers as their summer retreats, Saksar top also served as the joint summer headquarters for Shahpur and Mianwali Districts. Phulwari rest house than served as a midway stop-over for the officers and families accompanying mule trains carrying loads of official files, necessary furniture and household utensils. Our host showed us ‘Made in England’ crockery pots dated 1833 with Shahpur District insignia printed on them. Thirty minutes later we reached Sakesar top, our final destination and were comfortably lodged in guest rooms.
[FONT=Times New Roman]Since mid 1970s Sakesar had been converted into an Air Force Base and the Base Commanders had kept it neat and trim. Despite heavy presence of a uniform force, Sakesar had retained its colonial aura. The Shahpur’s Deputy Commissioner’ s residency had been occupied by the Base Commander. I asked an old cook to help me locate the Church and the Christian cemetery, features common to all such hill stations. He pointed towards a south-western ridge about three kilometres from the Main mess.
[FONT=Times New Roman]We drove out of the limits of PAF air base, descended along the road to Mianwali, then turned left and started gaining height again. Leaving the vehicle behind on the road, host Salim and I laboured along a steep path and reach the edge of the ridge which spread into a flat ground. There lay the Christian graveyard surrounded by a small boundary wall and a few dense trees. The graves were denuded of tombstones, which must have been broken and carried away for building homes in nearby villages. Buried within this compound in a remote hill are bones of unknown colonial administrators and their dependants, thousands of miles away from their loved ones. Imperialism extracted a fair price.
[FONT=Times New Roman]On the way back, our host stopped at a small village at the outskirt of the air base. He took me to a cylindrical shaped concrete structure from which water was flowing out through a pipe. A group of village maidens had queued up for collecting fresh mineral water. This was Hornet’s Spring and, according to the obelisk, was discovered in 1904 by Captain O.J. Brain, C.I.E, the then Deputy Commissioner of Mianwali district. This discovery was painful for O.J. Brain as he must have been stung by a disturbed wasp and in reaction called this source of water as Hornet’s Spring.
[FONT=Times New Roman]A few yards from the spring was a pagoda shaped structure which served as the water storage tank. From there water was taken upto the residencies and other buildings at Sakesar top on mules. It had fallen into disuse since mid-seventies when PAF developed an alternate source to meet the increasing demand of water.
[FONT=Times New Roman]Evenings in Sakesar were chilly and pleasant in the first week of August. Walking along lonely roads, lined by pine trees covered with thick low clouds, was an amazing experience. Since the Base Commander of PAF ensured complete ban on hunting, the dense vegetation in the surrounding slopes provided for a healthy growth of fauna. Jackals were frequently found crossing the roads boldly even in day time, while wild boars would shy away from the roads. According to the gazetteer, at the turn of the 20th century, Sakesar had a substantial monkey population, which were not found at any other place in Salt Range. The monkeys disappeared due to wanton killing and the departure of Hindus from this area in 1947. Reintroduction of this specie in its natural habitat would add to tourist attraction.
[FONT=‘Times New Roman’]On the last day of our stay at Sakesar, I called up my friend who happens to be the District Nazim of Khushab to thank him. He asked me to help him spread word about the tourist heaven that Soan-Sakesar is.