KARACHI: Some of the spotted deer, nilgai and blackbucks at Safari Park may find a way to their natural habitat in different parts of Sindh as their number has increased to 269 after the birth of 16 animals at the facility in recent weeks.

It emerged during a visit to Safari Park on Saturday that one spotted deer was born at the facility just a few days ago, while 11 nilgai and four blackbucks were born over the past two months.

Their herds now comprise 34 nilgai, 110 blackbucks and 125 spotted deer, all are protected under the Sindh wildlife laws due to their endangered status in the wild.

As the herds grew larger at Safari Park, experts believe that there should be an initiative to reintroduce animals raised in captivity into protected wild areas.

“None of the species raised either at Safari Park or the zoo, two major government-run facilities for captive animals in the city, has ever been reintroduced into the wild. However, the idea is worth experimenting,” said additional director at Safari Park Dr Kazim Hussain.

One of the basic purposes of breeding animals in captivity, he pointed out, was to reintroduce them in the natural habitats they had lost mainly due to human intervention.

“This has never been done here, but this is something that we should aim for and try. The province of Sindh has a number of protected areas where one could find suitable habitats for these species and the Safari might also get in return some of the animals which are in surplus in those protected areas,” he explained.

Dr Hussain regretted that public sector institutions lacked the approach towards animal exchange and there were no recent examples in this regard. In his more than 25 years of service, he noted, the first and the last time animals were exchanged with a government institution was with the Lahore zoo in 2004.

“The Karachi commissioner, however, has realized this gap and, as the head of the zoo committee, he has directed officials to work on these lines and contact other zoos in the country for animal exchange,” he said.

About recent births at Safari Park, he said the species donated in small numbers in the 1990s had bred well over the years. Currently, a significant number of animals were in surplus.

On Safari’s longstanding problem of lack of vegetation and absence of a proper water supply system, which has been seen as a major factor impeding animal wellbeing, he said work on the irrigation project was in its final stage and once that was done efforts would be made to make the Safari area green.

The project was likely to start this month as waterlines had already been laid, he added.

Sindh wildlife conservator Saeed Baloch endorsed Dr Hussain’s point of view on animals’ release in the wild and said it was a workable idea.

“As nilgai and blackbucks lived in desert areas, they could be released in the Runn of Kutch wildlife sanctuary located in Thar and Badin districts or in the desert areas of Khairpur.

“The spotted deer, however, may be released in some [protected] riverine forests, which is their natural habitat,” Mr Baloch added.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2015