ISLAMABAD: Siberian geese (Murghabi) have come to Islamabad after a gap of one season, bringing with them a renewed interest in hunting.

The birds migrate south at the start of winter and come to Pakistan before returning to Siberia in March. However, many birds are unable to make the second half of their journey due to vigorous hunting along their migration route.

Around 500 birds have come to Rawal Lake this year, but the trend may not continue, thanks to the hunters that have followed.

Arsalan Ahmed, a hunter, told Dawn about the various hunting methods used by enthusiasts.

“Hunting takes place at sunrise or at sunset. Some people use sound machines to recreate bird sounds, in order to get the birds’ attention and encourage them to land near the lake,” he said.

“We use dummy geese to get the birds’ attention. We tie dummy geese with ropes and leave them in the water. A number of geese come near them, and we hunt those with double barrel guns.”

The wildlife team at the Capital Development Authority (CDA), which is responsible for preventing illegal hunting, claims it has been unable to do so because influential figures are involved in the activity in the federal capital.

A CDA official said most hunters have influential contacts, making it impossible to take action against them.

“Whenever we raid hunters they just give us the phone to talk to politicians or influential personalities, and in the end action can’t be taken. We just have to leave them with a warning that they shouldn’t do it again,” he said.

“Even police from the federal capital are involved in hunting, so one can imagine how difficult it is to take action against hunters,” he said.

Wildlife officer Mehmood Chaudhry also expressed helplessness regarding the matter, saying he and his team had faced many problems for the last month because they had raided hunters.

“Wildlife watcher Mohammad Rasheed Awan informed me that some people were hunting geese on the rear side of Rawal Dam. I rushed there with my team and took all their goods and weapons into custody,” he said.

“One of the members of the hunting party introduced himself as a police official working in the city. They showed us a licence for hunting, but it was for Malakand Agency. We recovered guns, dummy geese and other things and deposited them in the Secretariat police station and received a receipt.”

The receipt is also available with Dawn.

“However, later the police official filed a complaint against all the CDA team members, alleging that we robbed him, after which an inquiry was launched,” Mr Chaudhry said. He said the team was declared innocent on Jan 11, in a report which is available with Dawn.

Mr Chaudhry said geese have an excellent navigation system, which is how they travel the same migration route each year.

“They can fly up to 800 kilometres in one go. We are trying our best to ensure that the birds are not hunted in the federal capital at least, because otherwise the birds will not come back to the capital or to Rawal Dam,” he said.

Mr Awan said that he has received many threats from hunters.

According to Mr Chaudhry, a hunting licence is only issued after weapons permit is issued, and the licence is only valid for a certain period of time and in a certain area.

He said the licence is only for hunting wild boars, and is only valid for hunting in Shakarparian for one month.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2016