THE Punjab Wildlife Department deserves praise for preventing the smuggling of 53 Siberian falcons to Qatar. The officials made their move when they received a tip-off that the falcons were being booked at Islamabad airport and were destined for the Gulf state. Among the recovered birds are those belonging to the Saker falcon species, which is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The birds come to the Cholistan area every year to winter. The way these majestic birds of prey are treated after they are captured is truly barbaric: their eyes are stitched while they are deprived of sleep in an attempt to tame them. Of course there is a very lucrative reason why unscrupulous people capture falcons and thereafter try to smuggle them out of the country. The birds are allegedly sold to Arab princes and potentates who use them during hunting trips. Observers say the most prized falcons can fetch prices ranging in millions of rupees, while even average birds can sell for hundreds of thousands of rupees. It is tragic that the smuggled falcons are brought back to Pakistan by the sheikhs to hunt down the hapless houbara bustard, which is listed as vulnerable by the IUCN.