KARACHI: More than 250 water birds, including pelicans and common cranes, have been forced to live in harsh conditions at the zoo for the past four months, it emerged on Wednesday.

A visit to the zoo showed that a large flock of aquatic birds — ducks, geese and a few pairs of pelicans and common cranes — had been confined to a small enclosure. The water available to them in a little pond was very dirty while they were deprived of a proper resting and breeding area.

According to sources, the birds were shifted to the small enclosure to carry out renovation in their old enclosure that had reportedly developed a number of leaks.

“It’s the third time that the pelicans and the geese have been dislocated. Earlier, they were taken out from a large fenced pond that had the most suitable breeding and resting conditions for the water birds,” a zoo staff member told Dawn on condition of anonymity. With lots of shrubs and trees and an elevated ground that the birds used for resting and breeding, the old pond was as old as the zoo itself.

Built in 1878, the old pond offered a cool and quiet environment to water birds, sources said, adding that the area was kept exclusively reserved for the birds till the 1990s when the zoo administration started using the pond for a boating service.

“Later, the boating activity had to be stopped as it was badly affecting the habitat of birds. Some of them had laid eggs on the elevated area provided to them in the middle of the pond,” another zoo staffer said.

More than a year ago, sources said, the zoo administration again thought of earning revenue through boating. For this purpose, old trees surrounding the large pond were felled, shrubs uprooted and all pelicans and geese, some of whom had laid eggs, were shifted to another pond where a good number of water birds were already living.

The birds, the sources said, lived in that overcrowded area for over a year before they all were shifted to this small enclosure. They expressed the fear that pond renovation would again lead to the destruction of old trees.

“Giving small space and little water to aquatic birds is highly unfair and unfortunate and that, too, at a zoo. The facility is supposed to be providing living conditions to animals, which is close to their natural environment,” said Jehangir Durrani, a senior wildlife expert, adding that stressful conditions would affect health of animals and they won’t breed.

Cranes and pelicans, he said, were migratory birds and were difficult to breed in captivity unless provided with the right care and habitat. “A pair of one-inch fish requires one cubic feet space to live in. So, you can imagine how much space a bird would require to have a healthy existence.”

When contacted, zoo director Fahim Khan said the ponds were being renovated one after another under an annual development scheme and the administration had no option but to shift the birds to the small enclosure.

“We had no other choice. We can’t shift them to the large pond area as that pond has been reserved for boating,” he said, pointing out that the pond renovation might take up to one year.

Mr Khan politely declined to answer further queries saying he was unwell.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2015

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