Threats to indigenous birds and wildlife species in Mohmand

Murad Khan

GHALANAI: While sharing his own experience 27 years old Ibad Ali working as watcher with Mohmand wildlife division said” One I went to Paye-khan, shahdad darra, and tabar areas of upper prang ghaar tehsil in order to search for wildlife species, after covering more than 20 kilometer distance on motorbike, I went to a forest filled with different trees, there was no road, while hiking around5 km, I saw four monkeys, while eating and playing with each other, but those monkeys were wild, when they saw me, they went into the bushes, I could hardly took 2 photographs, they give me no chance to make some video from them”.

“There are many kinds of birds and wildlife species in Mohmand district, but climate change and the illegal hunting is a huge threats to the life of these birds.” He added.

52 years old Gul Muhammad Khan (a local journalist by profession) said that there were so many kinds of indigenous birds, but due to climate change, deforestation, scarcity of water and illegal hunting these indigenous birds are vanishing from Mohmand District.

Recalling the golden days of his village life Mr. Gul Muhammad said that there were different types of plants and crops in our village, that’s why these wildlife species and bids will use to come here, there were some migratory birds like Siberian birds as well, which were used to come in a specific season, but the local indigenous birds were found in huge quantity even in our villages and homes.

He said that after Afghan war, the use of weapon and gunpowder has been increased in this area due to which not only migratory birds have been forced to leave this territory but the quantity of local indigenous birds also have been decreased, due to scarsity of food and non-favorable condition for their reproductive life. “But in Talibanization era, on one side the ban has been imposed on girls walking to mountains and on other side, the Nagha (local tradition of ban on cutting of trees for a specific duration on a specific locality) has also been imposed on some mountains, that’s why the greenery on Majority Mountains have been increased once again.” He added.

He said that hunting of birds on a large scale through new means like using of nets, Kalashnikov and other rifles is also a major threat to the life of indigenous birds, although the government has been imposed ban on hunting of these animals, but still the local people are doing illegal hunting on a large scale, which is really a serious threat to these birds, because if they have been vanished once, their race will never be produced.

Local Journalist, added that there is a wild mountain area named Prangdara, near halki gandao in Ekka Ghund Tehsil of Mohmand near where there are so many kinds of wild birds and animals, these are totally change from local birds and animals, because a wild cow of that mountain can’t be caught easily by human being, usually the people use rifles for their hunting, similarly the birds and even fishes found in those water are also wild having different body and taste.

What are Indigenous wildlife species?

Indigenous wildlife speciesare those species which are inits known natural range and occurs naturally in a given area or habitat, usually these species are opposed to an introduced species or invasive species. These wildlife species are very much important for our life and they are very much necessary for the Biodiversity of this war-on-terror effected tribal district, because these species have important role in maintain the balance in ecosystem and they are Biological pest controller. Besides this these species have several medicinal values, the Scavengers play important role in clearing our environment and they play their best role in tourism and recreation.

Kiramat Shah Divisional Forest Officer Mohmand wildlife divisionsaid that some indigenous Wildlife species which are found in Mohmand are Chukar, Partridge, Grey Partridge, see-see Partridge, Jackal, Porcupine, Monkey, Fox, Rock Pigeons (Columbia Livia), common Myna, House sparrow, common & rain quail.

About threats to the Wildlife species in Mohmand, the DFO Mohmand, Kiramat Shah said that habitat destruction to deforestation, wildfire, fuel wood collection, use of chemical fertilizers insecticides & pesticides.He said that Lack of food availability, Climate change,drought and pollution, Illegal Wildlife trade & hunting, Lack of community participation, wildlife importance, their conservation & protection and mining activities are the common threats to the life of these indigenous species.

DFO Mohmand said “To safeguard these important wildlife species, thewildlife department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government have taken various measures including the enforcement of wildlife law andrestocking and releasing of different species in the wild.”Apart from this the wildlife department have established village conservation committee (VCC) and school natural clubs at different tehsils in Mohmand Tribal District and are arranging awareness raising workshops in the whole district and the Mohmand Wildlife Division is celebrating wildlife days in different small towns of Mohmand District.” He added.

Although these wild species have some harmful effects on biodiversity and on our health like, these Birds consume seeds and young plants, they damage crops, these species attack on live stocks of local people and can cause diseases that may spread to domestic animals & livestock.

But on the other hand, these wildlife species play an important role in conservation, sofor the protection and conservation of these wildlife species, the local people must obey wildlife act 2015 and respect officials of wildlife department. The Biodiversity scientists believes thatif they cut one tree for fuel wood, it is necessary to plant 10 seedlings. Therefore, we should educate our children about the importance of Wildlife in our environment and control mining activates. In case of wildfire, we need to cooperate with wildlife and forest officials and apply community based conservation and protectionmethods. Besides this, we should also respect migratory bird’s species and try not to involve in any illegal hunting and trading of such species.

The Writer is Freelance Multimedia Environmental Journalist, who can be contacted on Gmail: muradkhanjournalist@gmail.com