BAHAWALPUR: A high-level committee on Wednesday began inquiry into the alleged disappearance of deer from an enclosure at RD-65 of the Lal Sohanra National Park, about 35 kilometres from here.

Formed by the provincial government, the committee is headed by Bahawalpur division Conservator of Forests Liaquat Sulehri and comprises National Park DFO Syed Jawad Shah, Bahawalpur Assistant Director (Wildlife) Chaudhry Akbar Ali, Deputy Director Anwar Mann and AC Tanvir Jhandhir as representative of the commissioner.

The Punjab government constituted the committee after reports that several Chinkara deer had gone missing from the enclosure. Allegations of the deer either being stolen or hidden by the staff responsible had been denied by the national park DFO and other officials concerned.

Dawn learnt that the issue had been pointed out by the AD (wildlife) when he took charge and visited the enclosure to count the deer. According to AD Ali, he found very few deer in the enclosure and suggested the department to count them. After the counting, 10 deer had been found missing out of the total 327.

Commissioner Capt Asadullah Khan retired expressed dissatisfaction and had directed to get a thorough census conducted preferably by locking the deer in cages. The department found it difficult, resulting in the matter being referred to the provincial government. The wildlife DG was assigned the task.

The Punjab government then formed the committee to take the census in its hands. The committee on Wednesday visited the enclosure and took stock of the situation with the help of necessary data, its stock registers and other related matters.

Head of the inquiry team, Liaquat Sulehri, told Dawn the census was a tedious and complicated matter and could take two to three days. After completion of the census a report would be submitted to the provincial government.

According to APP, the committee would be employing modern techniques, including camera count and tranquillisers, to count the blackbuck and Chinkara gazelles at Lal Sohanra National Park.

“We started head count by taking photographs of the deer herds today,” APP quoted an official as saying, who was part of the inquiry team. Photographs would be taken during the next two to three days during the week-long inquiry.

The team would also use tranquilliser guns in which injections are fired to make the animal unconscious to count it and attach a tag to its ear to remove possibility of an error. The guns and injections would reach the national park on Thursday (today), officials said.

A blackbuck runs at 80km per hour and counting them all through traditional techniques was difficult. The team also tried to employ net tunnel technique, but failed. A camera records deer running from one point of the enclosure to another, which is later played in slow motion to count the animal.

A senior official of the Forest Department said there might be possibilities of foul play, but other factors such as mortality by natural causes, attacks by predators like jackals or illegal hunting by poachers could not be ruled out.

Lal Sohanra National Park needed upgraded monitoring and security facilities and more manpower to protect the wildlife from poachers and predators, a wildlife official said.

RENAMED: The Bahawalpur bench of the Lahore High Court named the city’s busy Fawara Chowk as Khatm-i-Nabuwat Chowk.

A citizen had moved a writ petition in the high court praying the chowk be renamed. The bench accepted his plea on Wednesday.