KARACHI, Jan 23: Provincial secretary forest, Shamsul Huq Memon, has said that the preservation of natural resources and their appropriate use can bring positive results for national economy, but it will prove negative if used indiscriminately.

He was speaking as chief guest at the ceremony held for the conferment of the Syed Asad Ali Award for Conservation, at Wetland Centre, Sandspit, here on Wednesday.

The ceremony was organised by the Worldwide Funds for Nature.

He said that unbridled population growth was one of the causes of environmental pollution. Similarly, he said, agriculture and industrial production, development in science and technology, decline in forestry and fisheries, shortage of sweet water, air and water pollution, chemical and biological waste, indiscriminate use of natural resources and geological changes were causing environmental pollution.

He said we had lost 70-90 percent of our wildlife because of agriculture and geological changes. Water was becoming a health hazard because of defective sewerage schemes, disposal of chemical industrial waste and growing population in cities.

He said the emission of sulphur and nitrogen oxide and the burning of low-quality wood and coal had also led to environmental pollution,

He said this menace could be brought under control through a coordinated line of action and the WWF and the Sindh forest department had been making efforts in that respect since 1980.

These efforts, he said, included the Marine Turtles Conservation Programme, the joint survey of lakes and water-birds, the survey of blind dolphin the joint survey of sauruss crane in Tharparkar, the centre at Haleji, the Lung Lake Wildlife Sanctuary, the Education and Information Centre in Larkana, the Indus Dolphin rescue project, the Hub Dam Wildlife Sanctuary.

Later the secretary presented the Syed Asad Ali Award for Conservation to Gulzar Afaqi.

President WWF (Pakistan) Mukhtar Ahmed, Begum Syed Asad Ali, Dr Aijaz Ahmed and Ali Hasan Habib also addressed the ceremony.—APP