THE government a few months ago announced the establishment of 15 national parks, including the Handarap Shandur National Park in Gilgit-Baltistan. The term ‘national park’ refers to a protected habitat of unique flora and fauna.

Hence ‘Handarap Shandur’ is a misleading name for a national park as Handarap is not natural habitat but a hamlet of 300 houses in Ghezar, GB, with a population of 3,500 people. A 27km nullah, known as Shonjo Gole, runs adjacent to Handarap with a beautiful lake, lush green meadows and alpine forest.

Besides, Shandur is the name of a distant place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which neither makes part of its core area nor periphery.

As such, the proposed national park should be renamed to Shonjo Gole National Park, which is a natural habitat, and not a human settlement.

I would suggest to the authorities concerned that the initiative may be reviewed by technical people having basic know-how of biodiversity and its conservation. A national park is an advanced step of game sanctuary and game reserve and it must be planned by a team of experts in the field.

Dr Inayat ullah Fazi

Chitral

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2020