December 26, 2008	Friday	Zilhaj 27, 1429

KARACHI, Dec 25: A district game warden of the Sindh Wildlife Department, four officials of law-enforcement agency and others illegally hunted partridges in the Nara Game Reserve, it has been reliably learnt.

According to sources, the poaching safari in the game reserve, which is protected under the Sindh Wildlife Protection Ordinance, was arranged a few days back by a police official who is a resident of Taluka Thari in Khairpur district. The wildlife department had lodged several cases against the police official for poaching in the past too but no serious action had been taken against him so far, they said.

The sources said that the wildlife department appointed influential natives as honorary district game wardens in forests, deserts and remote areas where enforcement of law was a relatively difficult task. The wardens could use their influence to check poaching that otherwise might be very difficult to be curbed by staffers of the wildlife department single-handedly. However, in this case the game warden, who is a son of a member national assembly from the ruling party, poached on partridges in the protected area.

The sources said that poachers riding in a double-cabin pickup and two four-wheel-drive jeeps hunted about 40 partridges in the Nara Game Reserve for which the wildlife department staffers registered a case against them.

Responding to Dawn queries, Assistant Wildlife Conservator, Sukkur, Taj Mohammad Shaikh confirmed the incident, saying that a case had been registered against the influential people who illegally hunted in the game reserve in Khairpur district a few days back. He said the poachers included the wildlife department’s honorary game warden of Ghotki district Afzal Haq alias Mian Shabbir and his brother Mian Rafiq Ahmed – both sons of MNA Mian Abdul Haq – and four officers of the law-enforcement agency. Afzal Haq and Rafiq Ahmed are residents of Hafizabad in Deharki taluka of Ghotki district.

He said the illegal hunting safari was organised by a Khairpur district police officer, Mohammad Qasim Shar, who is a habitual poacher and against whom many cases of poaching had been registered in the past too.

Mr Shaikh said earlier reports about his (the police officer’s) poaching activities were sent to the police department so that stern action could be taken against him but the police department never took any action and he continued to poach fearlessly.

The assistant wildlife conservator said that the report regarding the recent poaching incident had been filed by the wildlife department’s raiding team of Sukkur, led by game inspector Deedar Hussain and comprising game watchers Araz Mohammad and Mashooq Ali.

On receiving the report filed by the game inspector, a first offence report (FOR) – equivalent to police’s FIR – under Sections 16, 7, 17 of the Sindh Wildlife Protection Ordinance, 1972, had been registered against the poachers, he said. The case was being investigated and was expected to be disposed of soon, he concluded.

It was unfortunate that while the small time culprits were dealt with sternly, influential culprits were rarely punished which threatened the survival of the wildlife species, the sources said.

They cited a similar poaching case in the neighboring Indian state, Rajasthan, in which a film celebrity, Salman Khan, had been accused of poaching. They said court convicted him for illegal hunting. When he appealed, the superior court enhanced the jail term. Currently, the case was before a higher court, they added.

Unless stern action was taken against influential poachers such incidents would continue to recur, the sources observed.