Balochistan’s forest and wildlife department has a century-old history, but it is sad to note that rare species of Bird are facing extinction.

The department is not even capable of stopping deforestation and hunting. Instead of protecting our wildlife, we are bent on appeasing the Arab sheikhs and other through ‘hunting diplomacy’. Chief Minister Balochistan,

Jam kamal Khan has taken immediate notice of illegally hunting Siberian migratory birds Sand Grouses in the deserts of Nushki district directing district’s Deputy Commissioner to take strict action against those involved in illegal hunting.

Chief Minister Balochistan has also directed Forest and Wildlife department to ensure protection of all endangered species in all districts of the province by utilizing its mandate and authority. It may be mentioned here that Chief Minister Balochistan Jam Kamal Khan took notice of illegal hunting of Sand Grouses through a video viral in social media in which some hunters somewhere in the desert of Nushki showing more than 200 hunted Sand Grouses.

International wildlife protection organisations like World Wildlife Fund have raised concerns about endangered animals like Balochistan’s black bear, pygmas jerboa (tiny mouse), brown rabbits, markhor, tortoise, migratory birds, including zaarhi, zark (chakor), sisi, etc.

For decades, royal Arab hunting expeditions have traveled to the far reaches of Pakistan in pursuit of the houbara bustard — a waddling, migratory bird whose meat, they believe, contains aphrodisiac powers. A report published in 2014 by the Balochistan Forest and Wildlife department claimed that a member of the royal family from a Gulf state had poached nearly 2,100 Houbara bustards during a three-week safari in Chaghi, Balochistan.

Environmentalists, ornithologists and bio-scientists have called for protection and preservation of the aerial route of migratory birds that come to this part of the globe from Siberia and other cold regions of the world every winter.

Owing to widespread hunting of these birds, unchecked urbanization, number of such migratory birds has drastically gone down and if efforts are not made to restore their course the day is not far when they stop coming here.

Last year, WWF-Pakistan has demanded of the federal government to resume the Annual Winter Fowl Survey, which used to be conducted every year in the country to ascertain the number of migratory birds and their migration patterns.

The WWF-Pakistan stressed the need for the Wildlife Departments of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to curb this illegal trade and ruthless hunting.

The WWF-Pakistan is working with communities in Lasbela district to control their trade. Some independent experts have endorsed the idea of sustainable hunting of the bird as opposed to a complete ban. Still, it will take considerable effort by the government to ensure that the migratory birds hunted in a sustainable manner and its population is not decimated.

The Wildlife Department needs to encourage the locals to take care of these birds and their habitat. It is time the government stopped bowing down to the whims of Arab dignitaries and other local peoples who involved butchering the migratory birds. We suggest Balochistan government to take necessary measures to save these birds from hunters.