CHAKWAL: The wildlife department recovered a female fawn of the endangered Punjabi urial from Jaba village located on the hilly border of Chakwal-Khushab districts, officials told Dawn on Friday.

They said a team of the department chased a poacher in the hilly terrain on Thursday evening. The poacher, identified as Ghulam Shabbir, ran away leaving the fawn behind.

The wildlife department personnel took the fawn in their custody and presented it before the court of civil judge Hasnain Anwar on Friday. The judge ordered the officials authorities to shift the fawn to the Loi Bher wildlife park in Rawalpindi.

District Wildlife Officer Khalid Hassan Sahi told Dawn that a challan was submitted to the court against the accused. “We are trying to arrest the poacher.” He said before shifting the fawn to the wildlife park, the fawn was fed with the milk of a goat. “The fawn looks 40 days old. There are goats available in the Loi Bher park whose milk would be enough for the feeding of the fawn,” Mr Sahi added.

The Punjabi urial is an endangered species which is not found in any other region of the world but only in the hills of Salt Range in the areas of Jhelum, Khushab, Chakwal and Mianwali districts. The breeding season of the urial starts in April. Poachers gird their lions as the breeding season approaches. One fawn is sold off from Rs10,000 to Rs30,000.

“During this season, 13 fawns, including six from the custody of police officials, have been recovered in different areas of the Salt Range,” Mr Sahi said. He added that as to curb the poaching entirely was impossible due to the vast hilly area, about 13 cases might have gone unreported. “The poaching of fawn is a heinous act as to separate an infant fawn from their mother is also an inhuman act,” Mr Sahi said.

“The wildlife watchers count the fawns on a daily basis,” he said, adding by the efforts of the wildlife department the population of urial was increasing. “The total number of urial has crossed the figure of 2,500.”

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2016