By Zahiruddin
CHITRAL: The conservationists expressed their concern over the desertion of Snow Leopard from Chitral Gol National Park, spreading over a vast area of 7750 hactares, for the last seven years which had been one of the well known habitats of the big cat in the past.
Addressing the function held in connection with World Wild Life Day here on Saturday by Snow Leopard Foundation (SLF) and Wildlife Department, the speakers validating the theme “Big cats; predators are under threat” said that snow leopard has not been spotted anywhere in Chitral for the last so many years.
The office head of SLF, Khurshid Ali Shah said that the big cat was the natural monitor of other wildlife species and kept their population density at desired level and with its disappearance from the national park area, the number of wolves and lynx has abnormally increased having a harmful affect on kashmir markhor.
Mr. Shah said that by camera-trapping method, the tracing of common leopard instead of snow leopard in lower Chitral and the vicinity of Chitral Gol National Park was also new phenomenon indicating the prevalence of threat in the habitat.
He mentioned the efforts of his organization and said that the foes of the human friendly wild cat have now been made friend who have now joined the efforts for its preservation.
The divisional forest officer of Chitral wildlife department, Ijaz Ahmed highlighted the importance of wild life and stressed the need of the local community in the preservation process and said that most of the tourists come to Chitral to see the kashmir markhor, ibex and many other wild species in their natural habitat.
He said that 80 percent of the income accrued from the sale of permits of trophy hunting of markhor and ibex put at the disposal of local communities who spent it for their collective development purposes.
He said that wild life had special significance for the people of Chitral which had been bestowed with a rich biodiversity and human population had a close nexus with the flora and fauna and any degree of disturbance in the ecosystem can spell disastrous affects for all as was witnessed during the flash floods some years ago.
Giving example, he said that Afghan Urial had a swarming population in southern Chitral including the national park but it has gone extinct completely over the decades and with it, a number of other wild life species have been endangered and it is said to be one of the reasons of the disappearance of wild cats because urial was its favorite food.
Mr. Ahmed said that the province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was rich in biodiversity which can be gauged from the fact that it houses 98 species of mammal out of 188 in the country, 455 species of birds out of 668 and 43 species of reptiles out of 177.
The chief guest and assistance district education officer Ahmedud Din said that the steeply rising human population, the destruction of habitat and the poaching are some of the major threats posed for the wild life and its intensity can be mitigated by the joint efforts of the government and the civil society.
The DFO of Chitral Gol National Park Irshad Ahmed, SDFO of wild life department Iltaf Ali Shah and community development officer of Non-Timber Forest department, Ajaz Ahmed also highlighted the importance of the day and discussed in detail the threats to the big cats in the area.
Earlier, a walk was organized to disseminate awareness about the importance of wildlife which started from Chew Bridge and culminated in Atalique Bazar which was participated by the students of schools and members of civil society.
