05 January 2004	Monday	12 Ziqa'ad 1424

KARACHI, Jan 4: The number of migratory waterfowl at the Haleji Lake (bird watchers' paradise) is substantially less this year as compared to the number of waterfowl that used to winter at the world famous wetland in the previous years.

A visit to the lake revealed that a major portion of the lake was without any vegetative cover. However, the level of water in the lake, which used to be a point of concern during the previous years, has been raised and now the lake was almost full. One of the reasons for less migratory waterfowl visiting the lake could be its habitat that has been severely damaged.

Talking to the Dawn, Sindh Wildlife Conservator Hussain Bakhsh Bhagat said that the number of migratory waterfowl had been declining gradually for the last few years. He said that over 68,000 waterfowl of 50 species had visited the Haleji Lake in 2000, while nearly 45,000 waterfowl of 37 species visited the lake in 2001, and the next year around 40,000 waterfowl of 46 species came to the lake while only 15,000 waterfowl of 45 species came to winter at the lake in 2003.

He said there certainly would be some scientific explanation behind it, however, he could not say anything without analysing all the facts. Mr Bhagat said that off hand one could say that the vegetation had decreased, which might have affected the fish that fed on aquatic plants. This was probably the reason for the constantly decreasing number of migratory waterfowl.

For the decrease in vegetation, he said, one of the reasons could be that an exotic fish species -China Carp- had found its way into the lake. He, however, was not sure how or by whom that exotic species, which was very aggressive in eating vegetation, came into the lake.

He said that earlier the water used to continuously flow into the lake from one side and drain out from the other side to supply water to Karachi. However, he said, the major chunk of water supplied from the lake had been discontinued. Though the lake was full, he said, the water was almost stagnant affecting the water quality and this might be a reason owing to which waterfowl were avoiding to visit it.

He said that the department was planning to organize a meeting shortly with other government organizations dealing with the wildlife as well as the non-governmental organizations working in the field of nature conservation so that the scientific reasons for declining number of waterfowl at Haleji Lake could be ascertained.

He said that once the reason became known steps could be taken to improve the habitat so that it once again became hospitable and played host to its annual winter visitors.

The in charge of Haleji Lake, Dara Muneer Qazi, said that nearly 100 decoy birds had been put into the lake and paddy feed was also being put into the water to attract the migratory waterfowl, but so far these methods had not yielded any great success and very little number of waterfowl had come to the lake.

Responding to the Dawn queries, the Deputy Director General of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Dr Ejaz Ahmad said that he had also received the information regarding the declining number of waterfowl at the Haleji Lake, but he could not say for sure about its reason. The situation demanded regular meetings of various wildlife scientists having all relevant studies, he added.

He said that possible reasons could introduction of exotic species of fish like China Carp or decreasing vegetation cover. But, he said, the habitat had certainly been affected and was not as hospitable for the waterfowl as it used to be earlier.

It is pertinent to note here that the Haleji Lake is located some 80 kilometres away from Karachi on the National Highway. Being located on one of the major route - Indus Flyway - followed by the migratory waterfowl, it used to play host to over 100,000 waterfowl of over 200 species in the past and was declared "bird watchers' paradise" by the then president of the WWF International, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.

The lake was declared a wildlife sanctuary where fishing and hunting was banned. Internationally, it was also registered under the Ramsar Convention and it was declared a Ramsar Site, which is the highest nature conservation status that a wetland could achieve.

The lake had faced a few disasters in the last decade when first the government gave a commercial fishing contract to one of its favourite persons that was later cancelled after the conservationists raised hue and cry. Later, the water supply from the lake was discontinued and its habitat was affected.

The conservationists said that if the Haleji Lake was properly maintained it could become equally important wetland, from the wildlife point of view, like the Bharatpur Wildlife Sanctuary located in India.