August 05, 2008	Tuesday	Sha'aban 2, 1429

KARACHI, Aug 4: A team of the Sindh Wildlife Department has confiscated “exotic” wildlife animal in a raid on a house in the Defence Housing Authority (DHA), it is learnt.

According to sources, the SWD team led by Rasheed Ahmad conducted a raid on house No. 41-A/2, Street 11, Phase-II, DHA and confiscated pairs of demoiselle cranes, greater flamingos, a java green peacock and a sykes monkey.

They said that the occupant of the house, Mohammad Javed, who owns the wildlife species, could not be arrested as he was not present at the time of the raid. He may have slipped away after getting a tip-off about the possible raid, the sources said.

Talking to Dawn, SWD official Rasheed Ahmad said that the Sindh Wildlife Protection Ordinance 1972 prohibited keeping wildlife species, particularly the exotic ones, at home.

He said that the confiscated species — protected under the ordinance — were brought to the SWD office and a first offence report (FOR), equivalent to a police FIR, was registered against Mohammad Javed.

Mr Ahmad said that a notice had also been issued to Javed and further probe into the matter would be conducted as soon as he responded to the notice.

Following are the details of the confiscated species:

Demoiselle crane

Weighing between two and three kilogrammes and grown about three feet tall, the demoiselle are the smallest of the crane species. There are six main populations of the demoiselle cranes in the world. These birds from the eastern population residing in Kazakhstan and the Central Asia fly over Afghanistan during their winter migration and enter Pakistan from the western side into the lower NWFP and upper Balochistan and further southeast.

While in Pakistan, the birds are caught in large numbers near the Zhob River in Zhob in Balochistan where a large number of hunters also come from the NWFP. The demoiselle cranes are kept as pets in the NWFP and Balochistan.

Primarily the birds of dry grasslands — savannas, steppes, semi deserts, etc — the demoiselle canes also stay in agricultural fields and wetter steppe areas and are normally found within a few hundred metres of streams, rivers, shallow lakes, depressions and other natural wetlands. Females usually lay two eggs and both the sexes incubate the eggs for around four weeks.

The male primarily defends the nest prepared in patchy vegetation high enough to hide them and short enough to allow them to look around during incubation.

Greater flamingos

The greater flamingos are the residents of the Central Asian region and come to Pakistan during winters. They are seen in large numbers along the Sindh coast during winters.

Green peacock

The green peafowl breed from East Burma to Java and the IUCN lists the green peacock as vulnerable to extinction due to hunting.

Sykes monkey

The sykes monkey is an exotic species of African origin.