The Margallah Hills National Park (MHNP) is at a stone’s throw from Islamabad. Comprising the Margallah hills, Shakar Parian and the Rawal Lake, the area was designated as a National Park in 1980 keeping in view the splendour of the lush green hills and the unique Sino-himalayan flora and fauna found here. Unlike a wildlife sanctuary, where precious plants and animals are protected from public access, a National Park welcomes visitors and provides a place for recreation and entertainment. For residents of urban localities, these natural tracts of open land provide an invaluable service that contributes towards their psychological well-being. Residents of Islamabad will vouch for the importance the Margallah Hills play in their lives.

Due to its proximity to a growing urban locality, the MHNP faces several threats and pressures, encroachments into the park territory being just one of them. Uncontrolled growth of village settlements, developments by the armed forces, and land grabbing by influential big wigs are some of these threats.

Most of the villagers with their homes inside the national park area were compensated by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and asked to vacate their land a few years ago. But their evacuation was not enforced and many of these residents continue to live inside the Park. New homes are constructed every year and the settlements are growing at an uncontrolled rate. Villages that only five years ago had less than a hundred homes, now have more than double that number. With meager resources and low income, these poor residents of the national park are forced to use the park resources in an unsustainable manner. They have neither piped gas nor sewage facilities. Hence, they cut wood for fuel, cooking and heating, and use park land as open toilets, as well as to dispose their solid waste. Their sheep, goats and donkeys graze in the forest destroying the natural vegetation. In short, the activities of these people have a significant impact on the ecology of the Park. The fact that CDA turns a blind eye to these issues does not help.

But it is not just the poor residents of these villages that are encroaching on the national park property. The defense forces including the army, air force and navy are all guilty of illegal occupation and developments in the MHNP. Just a few years ago the army took over several valleys of the Park citing security as the pretext for occupying the protected areas.

The Air and Navy Headquarters have been established inside the area designated as the national park and the Navy has recently made an extensive golf course spread over several kilometers. Almost a hundred square feet of forest area has been cut down and another several kilometers have been covered with razor wire. Whether this will succeed in keeping out terrorists is questionable. What is definite is that it will lead to severe ecosystem disturbances, destroy the vegetation, compact the soil and lead to habitat fragmentation for the animals that abound in the Park.

Influential bigwigs taking advantage of CDA’s languid attitude have their eyes on purchasing land inside the Park. There are reports of land sale near the Shah Allah Ditta village. If there is no action taken against poor villagers, little chance that anyone will dare to take rich influential members of the government to task.

The latest nail in the coffin is a change in the zoning regulations that allow a selected area of Islamabad’s Zone III to be used for commercial purposes. Proposed developments in this area include farm houses, golf and country club, a five star hotel, medium rise apartments, public buildings etc. The CDA Chairman, Imtiaz Inayat Elahi insists that this area of Zone III lies outside the National Park territory. Even if that is true, what is the guarantee that this construction will stay within allocated limits and not encroach into areas inside the MHNP? Large farm houses will subsequently be broken into smaller plots, sold and re-sold. Very soon we will have a congested urban area infringing upon the park territory. Rather than offering Zone III for sale and construction, the CDA should allocate the area to the national park to compensate for the several square kilometers lost to encroachments.

“There are solutions to the problem and some measures can be taken to redress these issues,” says Dr Anis Ur Rahman, Director of the Himalayan Wildlife Foundation (HWF), a non-profit organisation working towards preservation of the MHNP. “Firstly, the settlements inside the Park need to be legalised with homes clearly demarcated and property rights given to the original inhabitants of these localities. The settlements should be given the status of a sub-sector with all the facilities of roads, electricity, water and gas provided. Once this is done, any further construction should be disallowed and encroachments should be dealt with strict legal action,” adds Dr Anis.

“Currently the overall administrative responsibility of the MHNP lies with the CDA,” says Shadmeena Khanum, Senior Manager at the HWF. “However, the CDA is entrusted with the task of managing the national park area as well as looking after the state capital and therefore is unable to devote enough time, energy and resources into protecting the National Park. What is needed is an institutional set-up or managing authority that can look after the management of the Park including watch and ward, species management, land use and resource material as well as awareness raising, research, monitoring and evaluation,” she explains.

One thing is certain: the boundaries of the MHNP need to be clearly outlined and strictly enforced. We have already lost the area near Shakar Parian to concrete structures, and the construction of an artificial city park at Rawal Lake means it is now excluded from the national park. We cannot afford to lose the magnificence of the Margallah Hills with their natural beauty and splendor to encroachments, land grabbing and illegal occupation.