She came to us one afternoon, just after Joshi, the spring festival. Deciding we were okay, she stayed and lay down next to our two strays — mother and son. Although friendly and gentle, she was very vociferous; security wise, she was far superior to the other two dogs. A child, a youth, a policeman, a cow, all were subjected to her inquisitive invective. She was afraid of nothing, which was her undoing.

My household advised me to chain her up. To do this to a three-month old puppy would be to harm her, not to mention keeping everyone awake within a mile radius. The next day she did not appear for breakfast. We had lost her. Our house backs on to the jungle, but then in the days I lived on the other side of the river, again with the jungle at the back, with my beloved Pooch and Bibi Doe, the puppies were perfectly safe from four legged predators. (The two legged variety, the least said the better.)

True, it is mulberry time and the jackals are around. At Moon House, in Muscor, I had been fascinated by the bright beacons of light shining from their eyes. But Joshi Bibi would have been aware of them. She would have known of their presence. I asked around. Lions! No, not big mountain lions, but mountain cats, the size of a dog or maybe a lynx, known for their quick sight. But this was the beginning of June; it was not winter!

I was then told that last year, about the same time, four goats were taken from our village.

Then upon reaching Peshawar, I read a news item about a black bear being seen on the Chitral/Nuristan border, near Arandu. The first sighting of the black bear, believed to be extinct in the region, in many years. So what has this story got to do with Joshi Bibi, you may ask.

Everything. It means that the biodiversity of the region has been disturbed. This is hardly surprising, considering the enormous damage which has been done to the forest on both sides of the Durrand Line.

According to a paper put out by the Centre For Science and Environment, “A 20-year study has shown that deforestation and introduction of non-native species has led to about 12.5 per cent of the world’s plant species to become critically rare.” “A report from the World Commission on forests and sustainable development suggests that the forests of the world have been exploited to the point of crisis.” “What also makes this a problem is that many of the endangered species are only found in small areas of land, often within the borders of a single country.”

Already, before the disastrous floods of 2010, I had seen springs in Birir dry up. Soil erosion was spreading, good agricultural land was being lost, and the sightings of certain birds were becoming a rarity. Fields owned by my large extended family now lay derelict in the summer pastures. Lack of water, of long irrigation channels, and paths made dangerous by donkeys hauling big sleepers and tree trunks had put off their owners from working these once prosperous fields.

In India one reads of leopards and even tigers coming down into the villages scouring for food. In cities like Jaipur, monkeys have proliferated and from being jungle animals they have now become urbanities, causing problems and competing with man for food.

As the forests are denuded and the smaller animals disappear or are eaten by the pie dogs and cats of the villages, the larger animals are coming down further out of the jungle in search of food.

Here in Peshawar, where I have my office, my staff groans at finding the guava and apricot destroyed by maggots or caterpillars. “Use spray,” they cry. It is because of the wretched pesticides that their natural predators, the birds, have succumbed in numbers. Back in the ’50s, Rachel Carson caused a sensation with her book The Silent Spring. Perhaps, one of the first books on the destruction of the environment, it became a popular book among environmentalists. Unfortunately, its lessons were not taken on board except by organic farmers.

Up in Chitral and the Kalash valleys, wild animals have two resources, the jungle and tourism. The former has all but been destroyed and the latter is suffering from America’s grand war on terrorism and the constant threat of militancy from within and from over the border from Nuristan.

Sightings of animals once thought extinct, near towns, and the stealing of puppy dogs and other domestic animals from under the noses of the inhabitants, is a dire warning to all of us.

Unfortunately, how many people are going to take it seriously? Is the government going to make note that the biodiversity of the Hindu Kush has been much affected? Is the minister for the environment going to take up this matter with Islamabad? Is logging at last going to be banned?