MUZAFFARABAD: An official body in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) has decided to establish three new and upgrade and extend two existing national parks to promote and proliferate eco-tourism and wildlife in the region.

Pir Chinasi in district Muzaffarabad, Thub Patri in district Bhimber and Chatro/Chanairi in district Mirpur have been declared as new national parks, Chaudhry Mohammad Razzaq, director AJK Wildlife and Fisheries Department, told Dawn on Tuesday.

Chatro/Chanairi will also have the status of a wildlife sanctuary on the choice of the people of the area concerned, he added.

Apart from that, Mr Razzaq said, Musk Deer National Park in Neelum valley will be extended and Qazi Nag Game Reserve in district Hattian Bala will be upgraded as National Park.

The decisions had been taken by the Executive Committee of AJK Wildlife and Fisheries Department on behalf of the Advisory Board.

The committee is headed by secretary forests/wildlife, while the board is headed by the minister for forests/wildlife.

Mr Razzaq said, currently, there were seven national parks, eleven game reserves and one (wildlife) sanctuary in AJK, which covered 8.7 per cent of the region’s total area.

According to Millennium Development Goals 2015, the size of protected areas should be at least 12 per cent of the total area of any region/state, he said, adding that with the declaration of new national parks and upgradation/extension of existing ones, the size of protected areas in AJK would scale up to 11 per cent.

Mr Razzaq said that Barura Rakh, an 870-kanal pasture in Chattar Klass, towards the south of Muzaffarabad city, was also being declared a wildlife park.

A wildlife park, it may be mentioned here, is smaller than a national park.

Mr Razzaq told that the executive committee had also decided to explore revenue resources to augment Wildlife Conservation Fund, established last year under the Wildlife Act.

“It has been resolved that the income generated by the wildlife department from any source should be shifted to the Conservation Fund instead of the state treasury so that it could be spent on wildlife preservation and proliferation of wildlife and its habitat,” he said.

About other activities, Mr Razzaq said his department had prepared a scheme for establishment of modern trout hatcheries in Neelum valley, which would shortly be presented to the Cabinet Development Committee for approval.

Another four wildlife conservation related projects were also ready to be presented to the Development Working Committee for approval, he added.

To a question, Mr Razzaq said that the mega hydropower generation projects, mainly the Neelum Jhelum

Hydro Electric Project (NJHEP), had adversely affected water ecology and aquatic and overland wildlife, but no funds had been allocated in the past to mitigate the problem.

However, he claimed, he had got approved Rs418 million in the proposed Kohala Hydroelectric Project for conservation of aquatic and overland wildlife.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2015

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