CHAKWAL: On Sunday, people began to congregate in a vast field located around eight kilometers from the city. They were waiting for a mini-truck that set off from an Islamabad suburb and will reach the ground in two hours. As the truck appears in the distance, the crowd shouted in excitement.

More than a dozen dogs and an equal number of men disembark from the truck, after which six or seven of them unload the “prize of the day”: an injured wild boar caught by the hounds from a wooded area near the Rawal Dam.

One of the hunting dogs was killed during the hunt, and the boar and two other dogs were seriously injured.

The hunters tie the boar with a long rope and inject it with two substances; one to reduce the pain and another to increase its stamina, so it could fight for longer with the dogs and promise onlookers a better spectacle.

Dog after dog is set after the boar, which continues to try and fight the hounds despite its injuries. At one point, the boar even tries to attack a hunter that comes too close, leading the man to join in and beat it, to the amusement of the spectators.

After the boar is beaten down, the organisers ask the crowd, which has gathered around the unconscious animal, to disperse. They were waiting for a group of hunters from Jhelum district to pick up the boar.

“We did not kill the pig because our friends from Jhelum needed it. They will tell their village that they caught the pig, which will be a blow to their rivals in the village,” one of the hunters explained.

Wild boar-hunting is an old blood sport in Pakistan’s rural areas. Feudal lords such as Mumtaz Bhutto and Mustafa Khar were also famed hunters.

In his book, Zulfi Bhutto of Pakistan, Stanley Wolpert writes: “The untilled growth and woods around Ratodero and Larkana were full of game, especially wild boar, which Bhutto men always enjoyed hunting. Hunting would in fact, become Zulfi’s favourite sport.”

In Chakwal, nearly every village has two teams of wild boar hunters and the competition between them continues throughout the year. Hunting dogs, a mixed breed of greyhounds and bullterriers, are kept for this purpose.

Although wild boars are listed in the Fourth Schedule of the Wildlife Act of Punjab, they continue to be hunted. The government has also banned hunting and fighting with dogs after a recent Congo fever outbreak.

“The situation is alarming. Wild boars are carriers of ticks that spread Congo fever. The merciless killing of wild boars should also be banned, in addition to the Congo fever risk,” a senior official from the Punjab Wildlife Department said.

But hunters are neither aware of the dangers of contracting Congo fever, nor do they have any sympathies for the boars.

The district officer of the livestock and dairy development department, Dr Mohsin said: “Wild boars are the primary carriers of ticks that spread the Congo virus. Their hunting and killings by dogs must be stopped, as the ticks are transferred to the dogs and then to their owners and cattle.”

Khalid Sahi, the district wildlife officer, said that using dogs to kill wild boars was dangerous, and police should put a stop to such activities.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2017