KOHAT: The wildlife department has booked 21 people for poaching migratory birds whose arrival from Siberia started recently in the 13 declared sanctuaries of dams and lakes in Kohat division, including Hangu and Karak districts.

Sub-divisional officer of wildlife, Kohat, Shabbir Ahmad told Dawn on Sunday that 21 people were booked under the Wildlife Act 2015 during a raid at Darwazi dam for hunting birds without having any valid permit. He said that their guns were also confiscated.

He said that most of them were influential people and they were released after collection of fine from them. He said that the price of the single permit was Rs2,000 per day per gun.

Mr Ahmad said that the hunting area was very vast and the people hunted birds in the wee hours when wildlife officers were not present. He said that now special raiding teams had been constituted to stop the illegal hunting of geese, swans, cranes and 36 species, including mallard duck, ruddy shelduck and common teal which were favourite of hunters. These ducks come to the area in winter and lay eggs after returning to Siberia in summer.

The wildlife official said that there was no ban on hunting, but people had been doing this without taking licence and freely poached birds in Darmalak dam, Tanda dam, Ghurzandi dam, Dhoda lake and Darwazai dams in Kohat district.

In Hangu the game reserves are Shnawarai and Bilimina, while in Karak district, the hunting areas includeTeri, Chakto, Banda Daud Shah, Luckala, Jatta Ismailkhel and Sham Shaki.

Divisional forest officer wildlife Sajjad Ali, meanwhile, vowed to take strict action against people indulging in illegal hunting of birds.

TRAFFIC VIOLATIONS: The Kohat traffic police has fined 3,508 vehicles over traffic rules violations and collected a fine of Rs7.9 million during Sept 2015, according to a press release.

The drivers were charged for overloading, presence of music system in school vans, overtaking, wheeling and fixing grills for carrying additional passengers. However, it said that majority of drivers were fined for underage driving and wrong parking at busy places.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2015

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