KARACHI, Nov 25: As Sindh prepares to receive the wintry winds set to start blowing through its territory, the province, particularly, Haleji Lake, is getting ready to play host to a large number of migratory waterfowl from central Asian region.

Located at about 80kms from Karachi, Haleji Lake usually receives as many as 100,000 waterfowl of more than 20 different species. The bird is locally known as the Indus Flyway which selects this destination to spend its winters. For the waterfowl, Sindh is comparatively warmer than their habitat in central Asia during the season.

The lake is located along one of the major routes the migratory birds follow and for that reason, the wetland was termed “Bird-watchers’ Paradise” by the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, once the president of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) International.

As the significance of the lake grew high from the point of view of the wildlife, Sindh government declared it a wildlife sanctuary where hunting, shooting, netting and trapping of migratory waterfowl is banned under the wildlife protection laws.

The lake has also been registered under the Ramsar Convention and recognized internationally as a Ramsar Site, which is the highest nature conservation status that a wetland can achieve.

The lake’s beauty and importance has attracted the attention of other international agencies carrying out wetland management, such as the UK-based IWRB (International Waterfowl and Wetland Research Bureau) and Thailand-based Asian Wetland Bureau (AWB), bringing Pakistan to the map of the World Heritage Sites for the first time.

Haleji Lake was developed during the pre-partition era to supply additional drinking water to meet the increasing demand of the nearby major port city of Karachi. The city had been getting water from the Indus river through the lake.

The lake faced a disaster when the a commercial fishing contract was awarded by the provincial government on the basis of favouritism a few years back. The nature conservationists and environmentalists had raised a hue and cry over the destruction of the lake. The issue was widely publicized in the media which prompted the government to cancel the contract.

The contractor, however, had managed to net the entire fish stock of the wetland within 10 days of his job at the lake. The lake could host a comparatively little number of the waterfowl due to the lack of the bird’s feed.

It was during the damage-recovery period that the government discontinued water supply to the lake which was no more being considered as a reservoir meant for Karachi. The water level eventually dropped sharply drawing renewed protests from the environmentalists and nature conservationists. Paying heed to their rage, the government restored water supply to the lake.

At present the lake has sufficient water and fish stock to invite the normal strength of waterfowl visit Haleji.

The conservationists are of the view that if the Haleji Lake is maintained properly, it can gain the importance equal to the wetland of the Bharatpur Wildlife Sanctuary in Rajesthan, India.

They say that Bharatpur had a shallow water level while Haleji Lake contains deeper. They observe that shallow water deposits and the marshes are also available around Haleji’s embankments making it more attractive for many of the waterfowl species.