October 18, 2008	Saturday	Shawwal 18, 1429

KARACHI, Oct 17: The two fishing cats and the pelican, which were confiscated by Sindh wildlife department staff recently and shifted to the zoo to be kept in quarantine, will be released soon, it has been reliably learnt.

Highly-placed sources said that one of the cats, which had olive-grey-coloured fur with dark spots roughly arranged in longitudinal lines, resembled leopard. The cat created panic in Defence when it sneaked out from its cage and went on a stroll in the nearby bushes as it was mistaken for the big cat owing to its resemblance to leopards.

The frightened neighbours called in the police, volunteers and wildlife department officials. However, before the arrival of law enforcers the renegade fishing cat, which is declared a rare species under the Sindh Wildlife Protection Ordinance, was caught and brought back to the house of its master, a member of an influential family hailing from Makran (Balochistan).

Later, the wildlife staffers acting on a tip-off raided the house and seized two fishing cats and a pelican – a migratory water bird that is protected under the wildlife ordinance.

When asked, Sindh Wildlife conservator Hussain Bakhsh Bhaagat confirmed the seizure and said that the case had been registered and a fine of Rs15,000 was recovered from the people who were illegally keeping the wild cats and the migratory bird.

The cats and the pelican had been confiscated as keeping the wildlife species at home was prohibited, he said. For the time being, both the species had been shifted to the Karachi Zoological Gardens and kept in quarantine for a medical check-up. Once the species were cleared these would be released in their respective habitats in a week or so, he added.

He said investigations revealed that the cats and the pelican were purchased by the family from the Empress Market a few years ago. He said efforts would be beefed up to check the menace of illegal wildlife business going on there under the pretext of bird bazaar.

Houbara bustards

Meanwhile, a wildlife trafficker was nabbed and a consignment of 10 houbara bustards, a migratory bird which is legally protected in many parts of the world, was seized before it could be smuggled to the UAE.

Sources said the contraband consignment destined for the Gulf countries, where one houbara bustard could easily be sold between $300 and $400, was being brought from Jacobabad through a bus (BSA 532) to Karachi. The bustards would be released in the Nara Wildlife Sanctuary soon.

There is a complete ban on their trapping, poaching and hunting. However, houbaras are most sought after by the Gulf sheikhs, many of whom are issued special hunting permits by the government.