KARACHI: Ten falcons were seized in a raid conducted by the wildlife department in the coastal area of Matli taluka of Badin district on Thursday.

Nine suspects held during the raid were identified as Urs Thaeem, Usman Mallah, Mohammad Mallah, Abdul Lateef, Lal Bux, Abbas Mallah, Bhural, Mario Mallah and Allah Bux Mallah.

“All were local laggar falcons, a mid-sized bird used by hunters to catch large falcons, such as saker and peregrine falcons,” said deputy conservator of wildlife, Hyderabad, Ghulam Mohammad Gadani, adding that some suspects managed to escape.

The first thing the wildlife staff did after making the seizure, he said, was to open the birds’ stitched eyes.

“Generally, laggar falcons and pigeons are used to trap large falcons. In the case of the former, the hunters stitch their eyes to restrict their movement and tie some nooses around their claws to make it an easy prey. As soon as a falcon swoops down and attack its prey, its claws get entangled in the nooses, making it fall,” he explained.

According to him, illegal hunters set up camps during this time of the year to catch big-sized migratory falcons. It’s the third seizure of falcons in recent weeks in the province. Earlier, the staff raided places in Hyderabad and Jamshoro and rescued 18 laggar falcons and held 12 men.

Two parties were fined Rs40,000 each while the third one comprising two suspects was fined Rs20,000.

The rescued falcons were kept for two days at the Hyderabad wildlife office for rehabilitation and then released into the wild.

“We face a lot of political pressure and even threats, but are still working with limited resources,” he said in reply to another question.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2015

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