KARACHI: Several wild animals recently rescued from two circuses have been released by the wildlife department staff in the Khirthar National Park and Haleji Lake over the past two days.
Sharing details of the wildlife department’s action, Inspector Naeem Mohammad Khan said the staff released a pair of foxes, a honey badger, four porcupines and a pair of jackals in the Khirthar National Park while a male fishing cat and a small Indian civet were released in the surroundings of Haleji Lake.
The department, however, was yet to decide the fate of a male hyena, two pythons, a fox with a lost limb and a pair of monkeys.
“It’s likely that we release the hyena in the Khirthar National Park once we are sure that communities living in and around the park don’t see the animal as a threat and he is safe there for which we are engaged with locals. The pythons and monkeys might be given to the zoo so they could thrive there,” Mr Khan explained.
About the fox, he said though wild animals with a lost limb were swift to adapt to and survive in their habitat, the fox might be given to an animal rescue and rehab centre in the city.
It might be recalled that the wildlife department raided two circuses this week — one in the Mowach Goth and the other near Sohrab Goth — and recovered several animals.
Later, the department registered an FIR under Section 49 of the Sindh Wildlife Protection, Preservation, Conservation and Management Act, 2020 and fined the animal keepers Rs25,000.
Under the provincial law, use of animals in circuses is banned.
The law also completely prohibits trapping of wild animals and violators can get two and a half years in prison with a minimum fine of Rs30,000.
Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2021
