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CONSERVATIONISTS SEEK PAK HELP TO SAVE HAUBARA BUSTARD - Kounteya
Sinha in the ASIAN AGE (16 July 2001)
In view of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's visit, Indian's eminent
wildlife conservationists and wild water rafters have urged the Pakistan high
commission to allow joint programmes of Indian and Pakistani experts, firstly to
save the Haubara Bustard from extinction and secondly to allow rafting
expeditions on river Indus from Khalsi to Gilgit in Tibet, which is the world's
most ferocious rapid, inside Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Noted conservationist and secretary general of the Tourism and Wildlife Society
of India Harsh Vardhan and one of India's finest white water rafters Col. N.
Kumar have now decided to create awareness among people for these two causes.
Mr. Vardhan on Sunday said India and Pakistan should make joint efforts to save
the Haubara Bustard from extinction."India and Pakistan share a habitat
which has the potential to sustain birds in large numbers but there has been a
severe decline in their population due to indiscriminate hunting," Mr.
Vardhan said.Mr Vardhan said late Pakistani President Zia-ul Haq had assured a
delegation of conservationists including Indians in 1983 in Islamabad that steps
would be taken to save the bird.
However, environment issues including wildlife conservation have never been on
the agenda of the two countries, he said adding "who shall remind Pervez
Musharraf to finish the job left incomplete by his predecessor?"Haubaras,
he said, is bred in Iran, Afghanistan and neighbouring regions but the bulk of
their population disappears while migrating through Pakistan where falconry by
Arab sheikhs has taken its toll. The birds are also targeted in the Thar desert
in India.
He said chief conservator of forests, North-West Frontier Province in Pakistan,
Mumtaz Mallik, informed him last month at the Bonn Convention on Migratory Birds
in Wisconsin that Pakistan was making efforts to save vultures on the verge of
extinction across the border. The tissue samples of vultures, which India did
not send abroad for studies, had been exported by Pakistan, he added.
On the other hand, Col. Kumar, said since 1975 when he was part of an
Indo-German expedition which rafted till Khalsi, the 150 km stretch from Khalsi
to Gilgit have never been attempted. And that is specially because of the
Indo-Pak tensions along the Line of Control. Gilgit falls inside the
Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. "In 1975, two Germans came to India to raft down
the Indus and met Sheikh Abdullah who asked them to meet me. I was then the
principal of the National Ski School and I agreed to help them with the rafting
expedition on the condition that I would be part of the team.
They agreed and we undertook the first ever joint rafting expedition on the
Indus after we received a special permission from the government," Col.
Kumar said. The team started their expedition from Chumathang in the western
part of Leh in Ladakh and rafted 50 km upstream and then another 100 km
downstream to reach a place called Khalsi, creating a world record. The team did
not go any further because the rapids, on the 150 km stretch from Khalsi to
Gilgit is one of the most ferocious in the world as there are huge drops which
come without warning, the entire stretch is lined with huge rocks.The gorges are
narrow making it very hard to steer as the foaming water of the river engulfs
anything in the middle from both sides. The river is a killer near a place
called Julaigarh. Sources said several rafters from all across the world tried
to raft this stretch but never managed to, getting killed in the attempt.
"With Mr Vajpayee relaxing visas on the border areas, he should also
encourage rafting expeditions from Leh to Gilgit with adequate help from Gen.
Musharraf," Col. Kumar added. The river Indus starts in Tibet, nearly 100
km away from the Mansarovar Lake, passes through Chinese occupied territories of
India and enters Ladakh from near Domchowk and then flows down to Leh, Khalsi
and then into Dadisan, which is Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and sometimes
considered the place where Aryans originated
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