BAHAWALPUR: The Wildlife Department, Bahawalpur on Thursday released 10 blackbucks in the desert area to supplement their population which is facing extinction in its native habitat of Cholistan.

Dawn learnt that earlier the wildlife department, on the initiative of Punjab Secretary for Wildlife Shahid Zaman, had released a flock of 17 blackbucks in October 2020, which have now multiplied to about 25 in Cholistan.

Wildlife Deputy Director (Bahawalpur Division) Zahid Ali said the blackbucks’ breeding was being supervised by Punjab Wildlife Director General Shahid Zaman. He said the 10 blackbucks was earlier trained in the pre-release pen where fodder and water was made available to them for grazing and drinking without feeding them manually.

Mr Ali said that with the success of the first project of October 2020, the wildlife department had begun the second project of this nature to save the species from extinction. He said blue bull, Chinkara deer and rabbit also were in the open jungle.

The deputy director said security measures had been taken by cordoning off the desert area for the protection of the birds.

A flock of blackbucks was brought with the help of an NGO from the Netherlands with the help of the World Wild Life Fund in 1960 during the regime of the late Muhammad Ayub Khan and they were released at the National Park, Lal Sohanra in an enclosure for their breeding.

INTER RESULTS: The Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE), Bahawalpur has announced the results of Intermediate Part 1 annual examination 2022.

According to an announcement, as many as 26,463 of the 63,421 candidates have been declared successful with a pass percentage of 41.73.

Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2022