IN winter, birds from the Siberian region migrate to different fly-zones thousands of kilometres away to avoid extreme frosty weather. The Indus fly-zone in Pakistan serves as a middle-Asian flying route for these birds.

It is one of the favourite winter abodes for migratory birds. Their influx starts in October-November each year and they go back to their actual abodes in February-March.

Sindh has a rich and centuries old ecosystem due to the Indus River. It has a number of natural lakes and lagoons, which are important to a widespread diversity of breeding, passage, staging and wintering water birds such as Nareri in Badin, Haleji and Keenjhar in Thatta and Manchar in Dadu — all are Ramsar sites.

Once, during winters, these lakes and the Indus Flyway zones used to be teeming with hundreds of various species of migratory birds including shorebirds, flamingos, cormorants, herons and egrets, ibises, storks, snipes, and the houbara bustard.

But presently, owing to climate change and environmental degradation, acute water scarcity, extensive deforestation, degradation of habitat, excessive illegal hunting and poaching, there has been a steep decline of migratory birds. The number of year-round domestic birds in the lakes and lagoons of Sindh have also sharply plummeted.

“I love hunting birds because it is a profession that has been carried down from my forefathers for decades. Nareri Lake, if a flock of birds is flying I shoot four to five birds in a go,” said a hunter.

A poor mallah (fisherman) from Keenjhar Lake says: “We do not have any other source of livelihood in winter so we hunt these birds, sell and buy one to two kilograms of flour.”

To entrap their prey, hunters place huge expended netting on the surface of water in various lakes and freshwater bodies. They then play audio recordings of birds chirping; listening to those voices entire flocks approach and are got caught in the nets. In this way, entire species of birds are now on the verge of extinction.

Besides, the structure of the tidal link canals and salt water intrusion has reduced the growth of freshwater vegetation and shrubbery. Agricultural surplus, increasing industrial and plastic pollution have massively damaged the biodiversity in the area.

Pakistan’s biggest challenge is that concerned government departments, which have been established for the express purpose of protecting plants, birds and animals don’t appear to performing as they should. Paid to protect wildlife and conduct a wildlife census each year, but they evidently end up compiling old figures without ever going into the field.

It is high time the Sindh Wildlife and game department up their performance by taking immediate action against hunters and poachers.

The writer is Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning coordinator in the Sindh Water Governance Project

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, December 24th, 2018