The first time I read about Arab Sheikhs’ penchant for killing Houbara Bustard and how they almost eradicated this beautiful bird in Pak was in Weaver’s book “Pakistan in the shadow of jihad and afghanistan”. Pakistan has always been a lawless country, where laws are made to be broken and where anything can be done to please masters and patrons.
Killing Birds](The News International: Latest News Breaking, World, Entertainment, Royal News)
By Samia Shah
It’s cruel, it’s wrong and it’s against the law. Yet it goes on unabated. These clichéd phrases can represent so many things that are happening in our country. But in this particular case they relate to and very aptly describe the hunting of Houbara Bustard that has been going on every year for decades. This year yet again the government has issued hunting licenses to our brothers in faith from the Gulf countries and Saudi Arabia. In Pakistan the hunting season begins in November and ends in January. According to one estimate the population of this endangered bird has dropped as much as 40 per cent since 2005 and the current population is further expected to reduce by 50 per cent in 2006-7. This means that if strict measures are not taken immediately to curtail the unsustainable trade and hunting, this aloof bird could face extinction in next 15-20 years.
The simplest and the quickest way to do this to honour the existing national and international laws. Houbara bustard is a highly protected species both under national law and international conventions. It is protected under the Provincial Wildlife Acts/Ordinance of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan where this bird migrates from Central Asia, China and Mongolia every winter. It is also placed in CITES ( Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) Appendix I, which bans commercial trade in live or dead animals and animal parts. It is also listed in CMS (Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals) and IUCN. The World Conservation Union has given it a status of ‘Near Threatened’ species. Pakistan being a signatory of these international conventions is under obligation to protect and take steps for the conservation of the Houbara Bustard.
The government has been in the habit of inviting dignitaries from the Gulf and Saudi Arabia since the 1970s. At first the hunting entourage included only the heads of states and later the circle was expanded to include the relatives and wealthy friends of the Arab sheikhs. Even today the hunting license is issued in the name of one person, usually some royal highness and the hunting party comprises scores of highly placed people. However during the seventies Houbara Bustards population in Pakistan was not so much under pressure as a lot of Arab royals used to go to Iran and Afghanistan as well. But since the fall of Shah of Iran and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan with its continued aftermath, Pakistan became the sole destination for the bird hunters. Now an area of about 540,000 square kilometre is allocated every year — almost half of the total area of Pakistan for this purpose. Rumour has it each sheikh has his own favourite area and if any other sheikh is allocated that particular area, intense displeasure is conveyed to the host government!
Moeen Qureshi during his short stint as the prime minister tried to put a ban on this practice for three years but could implement his own decision. Despite the fact that the bird has been placed in the category of protected species by the provincial wildlife departments , the provincial governments at the behest of the federal government, are pleased to excluded Houbara Bustard from the list of banned species for a period of three months every year to allow hunting in the designated areas.
To make matters worse our guests do not adhere to ‘limits’ prescribed by the government such as the number of days and the bag limit — which is 10 days with 200 birds allowed to kill! They of course go for over-time and over-kill. The Provincial Wildlife Department officials have reported on several occasions that these Arab parties destroy the vast tracts of natural habitats of the birds by a variety of constructions and off-road driving. When the government flouts its own laws by allowing them to hunt an endangered species, how can we expect them to respect any limits? Tons of these birds are carried back home by the Sheikhs to be eaten voraciously as an aphrodisiac, which is more of a myth than a scientific fact.
Does it all make any sense? What are we getting by dishing out our own natural habitat and wildlife to be savagely destroyed for the pleasure of foreigners? According to the Houbara Foundation International Pakistan, there is only one Houbara Bustard in an area of about 8 square kilometres in the habitat in Pakistan! Despite this the considered opinion of the foreign relations experts of the government is that any such ban would create difficulties for Pakistani labour working in the Gulf states and Saudi Arabia. This of course is a lame excuse for continuing this practice which has been used as PR exercise for developing personal relations with the visiting dignitaries rather than any tool or bait for Pakistan’s long term national interest. In any case Pakistanis working in the Middle East are making a huge contribution to the economies of these countries and they have earned their place through merit, sweat and toil. Whereas these visiting dignitaries do not make any significant contribution to the economy of our country.
Attempts are being made to rehabilitate the Houbara population by captive breeding by the Houbara Bustard Foundation patronised by the UAE in collaboration with local authorities in Pakistan. But elsewhere in the world similar attempts at conservation have proven that the best and most effective way to protect the Houbara is to enforce existing laws related to its hunting as captive breeding is not only difficult but also expensive.
Appended to this problem is also the issue of Saker falcons which are used to hunt the Houbara Bustard. These falcons are netted and exported to Arab falconers. Again due to lack of foresight and prudence which calls for sustainable use of the species as allowed in CITES and CMS, excessive netting of the falcons has jeopardised their survival to an extent that it can become extinct. Pakistan is on the top of the list of countries which allowed unbridled export of falcons during the last ten years. Consequently in May 2005 CITES Secretariat asked the authorities in Pakistan for immediate suspension of issuance of export permits for Saker falcons. Even though Pakistan cannot issue any export permits but the Arab dignitaries have devised a clever way of bypassing this ban. When coming here for hunting, they bring with them ‘low grade’ species of falcons on the pretext of falcon training and on their way back they exchange these for Saker Falcons. Voila! And the local authorities know all about this.
The hunting of Houbara Bustard and netting of Saker falcons are not just issues of concerning conservation of wildlife, in fact these point to the broader issue of governance in Pakistan. Why are laws made in this country if the implementing authorities themselves are not interested in implementing them? Civilized nations conserve and jealously guard their natural assets like wild life, flora and fauna, as a legacy to be passed on to the future generations. What kind of legacy are we going to leave for our future generations. It will certainly be an incomplete one if birds like Houbara Bustard and Saker are not a part of it.