There are 14 national parks in Pakistan. One of them, the Kirthar National Park is located about 150 kilometres northeast of Karachi in the province of Sindh.
The Kirthar National Park is one of the most well-known and important parks of the country as not only does it have the largest wildlife sanctuary in Pakistan, it is also the oldest protected area to be included in the Untied Nation’s list of protected sites. It is home to a wide variety of animals and plants including some endangered species such as Sindh ibex, urial and chinkara. The area also has great cultural and historic importance due to the presence of old buildings such as the Taung Tombs ad the Rannikot Fort.
This national park was the centre of controversy some years ago when an oil exploration company and its partners requested permission to explore oil and gas in the Dumbar block of the Dadu district (Sindh) that includes areas of the Kirthar National Park. The oil company argued immense economic benefits if gas was discovered in the area. Since Pakistan at present spends huge amounts of foreign exchange on oil imports, oil discovery they claimed would not only lead to self-sufficiency in the energy sector and save precious foreign exchange, cheaper gas would also bring down costs in the industrial and power sector.
Environmentalist organizations, on the other hand, strongly opposed exploration in the oldest national park of the country, home to a wide variety of plants and animals, especially some endangered species. Since an area is designated a national park to protect its natural scenic beauty, its flora, fauna and habitats, they were horrified that exploration in a national park area could even be considered. According to the Sindh Wildlife Protection Ordinance, 1972, mining activities are strictly prohibited in any national park in Sindh. What, the conservationists argued, was the point of designating an area ‘protected’ and then allowing exploration and mining here? Moreover, there are indications that oil and gas reserves are located all over the province of Sindh. They argued, why not focus on other possible locations and leave protected areas alone?
Organizations such as the WWF and the IUCN issued statements and press releases and also lodged strong protects with government ministries. However, in 1999, the government gave the go-ahead to the oil company to begin drilling but only after the completion of a detailed EIA by an independent consultancy group.
Now almost five years later exploration has yielded no significant results and neither oil nor gas has been found. Before exploration was initiated, the oil company claimed that the topography of the concession area called Dumbar El strongly indicated the presence of underground reserves thought to be larger than those of Sui Balochistan which if discovered would solve Pakistan’s energy woes. It is now apparent that their assessment was highly flawed. While exploration in the area has not been officially declared over, the chances of finding oil or gas seem slight.
Fortunately for the flora and fauna of the Kirthar National Park this means the area will be left alone and hopefully the integrity of the national park will soon be restored. This discovery of gas with its consequent drilling, construction, laying of pipelines, influx of vehicles, personnel etc would have spelled disaster for the protected species of the park. Though exploration is sure to have caused some disturbance, it is small compared to if oil had been found.
Besides, the company claims that throughout the drilling, every possible effort has been made to mitigate the potential adverse impacts on all aspects of the environment (geomorphology, air quality, water resources, wildfire and socio-economic conditions.) Every step taken has been in accordance with the EIA and strictly monitored by an independent monitoring consultant as well as by interested stakeholders including the NGOs, the media etc., while it is impossible that absolutely no damage was done, it is heartening to know that the damage was minimal and every effort was made to mitigate adverse impacts.
It cannot be denied that gas discovery would be beneficial for Pakistan. What is a cause for concern is the fact that exploration was permitted inside the boundary of a protected area, a designated national park. As mentioned before, there are indications that hydrocarbon reserves are located in other locations all over the province of Sindh. The government should concentrate on these areas first and respect the integrity and sanctity of a national park. After all, it is the government that designates areas ‘protected’. If at anytime later they are going to alter conservation laws to accommodate exploration interests, then declaring areas ‘protected’, ‘national parks’ or ‘sanctuaries’ is of absolutely no value at all. n
There are 14 national parks in Pakistan. One of them, the Kirthar National Park is located about 150 kilometres northeast of Karachi in the province of Sindh.
Organizations such as the WWF and the IUCN issued statements and press releases and also lodged strong protects with government ministries. However, in 1999, the government gave the go-ahead to the oil company to begin drilling but only after the completion of a detailed EIA by an independent consultancy group.
