ISLAMABAD: A team of South African conservationists will be reaching the federal capital next week to train and enhance capacity of staff of the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) in capturing and rescuing wild animals that lost their ways into settlements.

The need to train the IWMB staff has become ever more important after lessons learnt from the incident in February when a leopard from the wild entered Defence Housing Authority (DHA) spreading panic among the residents. Several failed attempts were made to rescue the scared feline before it was released into its natural habitat.

“We felt that the staff must be inculcated knowledge of how to deal with a wild animal in distress and get hands on training and getting acquainted with the technicalities of using dart guns,” said IWMB Chair person Rina Syed Khan.

The training would go a long way to deal with such incidents if they happened in the future, she said, adding: “That is the lesson we learnt from the leopard episode few months ago.”

We feel staff must be inculcated knowledge of how to deal with a wild animal in distress, says official

The IWMB has applied for funding from World Wildlife Fund (WWF) scientific community to study leopard population and behaviour in the leopard preserve that has been established in the Margalla Hills National Park.

“We need more cameras for the study. The fire season has just ended and monsoon is also not the right time for it. We should be able to commence the study in September or October.”

Meanwhile, referring to safety and security of trekkers and hikers on the trails in the Margalla Hills following the alleged rape case, Ms Khan said the trails were safe for everyone, including women and girls.

“We do advise hikers to follow IWMB guidelines to avoid using trails in dark - not to go hiking before sunup and returning 30 minutes before sundown.”

The official said IWMB was collaborating with the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) where the police patrols were present in the parking areas to ensure safety. IWMB staff also patrolled the trails, she said, adding: “IWMB staff also patrolled the tracks. They also checked picnic baskets etc for food items at the start of the trails. Guns are of course not allowed on the trails. We have discouraged armed private security guards accompanying trekkers. The reported incident was strange. The trails are places for families and they are secure places,” she said.

However, she did caution hikers to avoid unmarked trails.

They must take into consideration that the trails are inside the protected national park where there are also wild animals.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2023