CHITRAL: The people of the eleven villages around the Chitral Gol National Park (CGNP) on Sunday protested the failure of the wildlife department to curb poaching and cutting of deodar trees in the park after the community watchers stopped duties a year ago over non-payment of salaries.

Addressing the protest demonstration held in front of the Chitral Press Club, the office-holders of the village conservation committees said the park enjoyed international fame due to the highest population of Kashmir Markhor and snow leopard with a high density of deodar trees.

However, they said poaching and illegal cutting of trees was going on unabated.

The conservation activists said on one hand the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government had announced to establish 19 model national parks across the country, but on the other, it had utterly failed to protect the CGNP due to apathy of officers of wildlife department, including its chief conservator.

They said the park was developed in 1998 with the financial assistance of the World Bank and the custodian communities were integrated into the park management and a park management plan was put in place for sustainability of the conservation process. They added an endowment fund of Rs220 million was put at the disposal of the federal ministry of climate change.

They said Fund for Protected Areas (FPA) was created in the ministry and it was the responsibility of the wildlife department to secure the share of CGNP from it every year to pay salaries of the community watchers and carry out other conservation activities.

However, they regretted that the wildlife department had failed to secure the funds, as a result, the salaries of the community watchers had not been paid for last one year.

They said presently the park was at the mercy of the poachers, threatening the population of markhor and deodar trees.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2020