Excellent news - I hope the numbers do increase and spread. Pakistan’s wildlife is so rare. I wish they would preserve it.
Footloose, NOS, The News International
Return of the antelope
Good news: The once extinct species of chinkara is now rehabilitating the Manglot wildlife park
By Mohammad Niaz
“Dear chinkara, I hope you would be safe and sound” …
It’s a tale of an antelope which was an integral part of the semi-arid ecosystem back in the 1970s, when human population and technology was not sprawling.
Multiplying human population and its subsequent encroachment into wildlife core areas shrunk the pristine and prime wildlife habitats into small and isolated pockets. The corridors that facilitated animal movement from one place to another were blocked. Once a wildlife species disappears from its prime habitat due to anthropogenic activities it takes years to reestablish its population in the wild under natural conditions. Rarely news is heard that a species has made an exceptional comeback.
This is what happened with chinkara: It had locally disappeared in the 1970s due to wanton poaching practices. However, the sequential progressive rehabilitation efforts have paid back as more than 24 chinkara were recorded outside the Manglot Wildlife Park in district Nowshera in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during a wildlife monitoring survey.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the success story of rehabilitation of chinkara, a wild brisk ungulate adapted to dry conditions of arid and semi-arid habitats of the country, was awaited for long. In this context, establishment of wildlife parks in the province which serves as sanctuary and safe haven for the wild ungulates is one of the promising steps.
Manglot Wildlife Park, established over 715 hectares in 1984 in district Nowshera’s Khwara Reserve Forest, was developed to provide an undisturbed breeding ground to chinkara and urial in their natural habitat as well as recreational-cum-educational opportunities to local people and other visitors. Some species of wild ungulates like blue bull, chinkara, urial, and hog deer were released inside the park for reintroduction in the wild at appropriate point of time.
The first-ever footage and images of chinkara have been obtained in the wild. Here we cannot undermine the support of the local communities in the rehabilitation of this animal. Its population is arithmetically multiplying. Now, extensive conservation efforts on part of the management are required to see further progress.
This area has hardly been in focus for socio-economic development of the local people. The wildlife potential of the area has rightly attracted some worthwhile initiatives — the provincial government is not only establishing a Nizampur Wildlife Park over an area of 2612 hectares but has also launched a development scheme which will ensure effective conservation of the area’s wildlife. This will benefit and support the local communities that are deprived of basic amenities.
Furthermore, the project is likely to conserve biodiversity, alleviate poverty and help achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
Chinkara is also known as gazelle. The word gazelle is taken from Arabic language meaning “lovable”. Interestingly, on being disturbed the animal produces a sneeze-like nasal sound, thus locally called chinkara, the sneezer. The agile chinkara males have longer horns than its female counterpart. It can survive for long without water and can fulfill its water requirement from moist and tender parts of plants.
The IUCN Red Data Book lists chinkara as an animal of least concern.
In Pakistan, the population of chinkara has drastically been reduced due to hunting and habitat destruction — and is considered to be a threatened species. They were once plentiful in Dera Ghazi Khan, Dera Ismail Khan, Thal Desert, Kala Chita Hills, Salt Range, and some parts of Balochistan and Sindh.
The scene of this success story is Nizampur situated about 40 km south of the Attock bridge on Western bank of the Indus River. The tract is mostly mountainous with altitude, ranging between 250 meters to 1372 meters. The climate of the area is characterised by severe cold winter and hot summer. The tract falls in sub-tropical evergreen scrub forest zone with Acacia modesta and Olea furruginea as the main species. The tract is abode of a variety of mammal species, including common leopard, wolf, jackal, wild boar, fox, and hares.
Among birds, grey partridge, black partridge, chukar, see-see partridge, tree pie, kestrel, rock pigeons etc are commonly observed.
There is dire need to conduct research on the area’s biodiversity and bring in more development projects to ensure livelihood opportunities here. The main challenge today is to ensure that chinkara does not disappear again.
Chinkara, welcome back!