LARKANA, March 30: Environmental degradation has hit one of the wildlife sanctuaries of Sindh, the Drigh Lake, decreasing the presence of migratory birds there in winter.

This was said by the president of Larkana district People’s Party Parliamentarians Nawab Shabir Ahmed Chandio on Sunday.

Talking to this correspondent, he said that a government-owned oil and gas company, Pakistan Petroleum Limited, had laid a gas pipeline through the Drigh Lake Wildlife Sanctuary and it had drastically affected the pattern of the migratory birds.

Nawab Chandio said that the PPL’s pipeline laying activity had been protected by rangers.

The pipeline, according to him, would not only harm the local bio-diversity but would also deprive the landowners, whose land had been used in this regard, of their livelihood.

The Drigh Lake, which was declared as wildlife sanctuary in 1977, coveres an area of 403 acre. It had emerged in the backdrop of the high river flood of 1885, one of the local resident told this correspondent.

Some of the sanctuary area was purely government-owned land but some local landlords had staked their claims on the land of the sanctuary’s surrounding area, he said.

Meanwhile, people living in the Khahee Mehnhoon village, which is near the lake, said that the number of migratory birds had declined after the acute shortage of irrigation water in the surrounding channels that were supposed to be filled by excess water from the lake.

Poaching and illegal fishing had also contributed to the diminished numbers of migratory birds, they said.

It is believed that 70 per cent of the migratory waterfowl visiting Pakistan, come to Sindh during the winter season, an official of the Sindh Wildlife department said, adding that these birds often chose what was familiarly known as the Indus Flyway.

He said that this lake sustained a large waterfowl population, including certain endangered species.

It also served as a breeding and rearing ground for these birds, the official said.

It was also learnt that the fishing, for which the government granted official contracts, in the lake would also affect the arrival of the birds.