ISLAMABAD, July 28: The majesty and beauty of the Karakorams may prove its own enemy before long unless focused measures are taken to conserve their habitat against the depredations inflicted on them especially since the improvement of communications.

This was the lesson one came away with after viewing a documentary and a photographic exhibition that was held here on Wednesday to mark the 50th anniversary of the first ever conquest of K-2, the second highest mountain in the world, by an Italian expedition, led by Prof Ardito Desio.

The Killer mountain was conquered by renowned Italian mountaineer Lino Lacedelli in 1954 when he was 29 years old. The programme had been organized jointly by the Italian embassy, Government of Pakistan and the IUCN.

Minister of State for Tourism, Sports and Minorities Rais Munir Ahmad presided over the proceedings and inaugurated the exhibition. Lured by the grandeur of the ice-capped mountains defying the sky, mountaineers and adventurists have flocked there from all over the world for nearly a hundred years.

The fame that followed their victories and tragedies attracted the common run of tourists. The resultant influx of visitors to the land of lofty peaks, glaciers, alpine pastures, forests, lakes, plateaus and valley should have served the people of the area as a way of delivery from poverty and destitution as is the experience of many countries and cities that see tourism as the mainstay of their socio-economic well-being.

The experience in the Northern Areas, however, has been quite different. As a documentary film entitled the Moving Mountain, screened as part of the celebrations programme showed, "new challenges and new issues have cropped such as unplanned urbanization, unregulated tourism, deterioration of forests, water quality, sanitation, increasing poverty and depletion of agriculture and other resources".

The film also included interviews with some of the members of Northern Areas Legislative Council who complained of the lack of representation of the people of Northern Areas in the Parliament of Pakistan.

The programme started with the speech of Giampaolo Cutillo, Charge d'Affaires, Embassy of Italy, who retraced the history of his country's engagement with the Karakorams.

The first landmark of the mountaineering and scientific exploration by Italians, he said, came in 1929 with an unsuccessful attempt on K-2. Speaking on the occasion the minister of state said: "K-2 is for Pakistan what Taj Mahal is for India, Everest for Nepal and the Pyramids for Egypt, a symbol of national pride and the most outstanding natural heritage".

At a time, the minister said, when the tourism industry was confronted with crisis in the wake of September 11, it was the adventure seekers who kept the fragile tourism alive in Pakistan.

Twinning of Skardu with Cortina d' Ampezzo which is the birth place of Lino Lacedelli, construction of a museum at Skardu, issuance of K-2 golden jubilee postage stamps and Pakistan-Italy polo match would also be held on the eve of its first ascent.

The IUCN country representative, Abdul Latif Rao, outlined the efforts to conserve the Northern Areas' habitat with the participation of local populace and Italian partners.

Mr Rao recalled a 1992 study by the IUCN which had concluded that the natural value of the central Karakoram was clearly exceptional on world scale. However, the park needed to be managed to achieve its objectives, he pointed out and held out the assurance that the IUCN and the relevant Italian organizations would support jointly the Northern Areas administration in this respect.

Mr Rao emphasised on the need for establishment of a "decision support system" for the Karakuram area to facilitate better tourism planning and decision making.