ISLAMABAD: Residents of the federal capital have criticised the decision of the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB)to impose fees on hiking trips to the trails on Margalla Hills.

They believed that the decision will discourage physical activities among the residents and increase the risk of diseases among them.

Mohammad Naeem, a local resident, while talking to Dawn, said it was unfortunate that a fee would be imposed on visitors to the hiking trails.

He, however, hoped that no fee would be charged from individuals and demanded that it should also not be imposed on groups as educational institutions time to time also arrange hiking trips.

Residents say staff get salaries to protect national park, raise awareness among citizens

“I take my wife and children to the trails so that we remain healthy because of physical activities but it seems efforts are being made to keep people confined in their houses. Unfortunately, children spend most of the time playing video games at home so I try to take them to different trails so they would enjoy tracking,” he said.

Devcom-Pakistan Executive Director Munir Ahmed in a statement condemned the IWMB’s decision of imposing fees for awareness and environmental engagements in groups at Trail-5 and 6.

He said IWMB Assistant Director Information and Outreach Omar Bilal wrote him an email stating, “We would like to inform you about an update in the fee structure for activities on Trail-5 as well as Trail 6 in accordance with Rule 6 of Islamabad Wildlife (Protection, Preservation, Conservation and Management) Rules 1983. The IWMB has implemented a fee for every activity on Trail 5. In order to obtain the necessary no-objection certificate (NOC) for your upcoming activity, we request you to submit a fee of Rs1,000 per participant. This fee is required to be submitted along with the completed event form.”

The email stated that the fees include “awareness and education session about biodiversity and ecosystem of MHNP, a showcase of documentaries and a guided hike”.

He added, “If you exclusively utilise our Visitor Information Center (VIC) space for a closing ceremony at Trail 5, the fee is Rs25,000”. This is in addition to the awareness and education session about MHNP biodiversity talk, showing documentaries and a guided hike.“

Mr Ahmed said, “It is a shameless policy of IWMB that is said to be imposed to support the ongoing conservation of the MHNP, a federal government organisation under the ministry of climate change. All the staff get salaries for protection of the MHNP and raising awareness among the citizens, especially the youth and children. Minting money to carry out the mandated tasks is against the public code of conduct. It would hamper the activities that are managed by the nonprofit and voluntary organisations to engage youth in environmental awareness and conservation.”

He urged the prime minister and the relevant minister to take notice of the discrepancy. It is worth mentioning here that IWMB has a total budget of Rs59 million.

When contacted, Pakistan National Hearth Association General SecretarySanaullah Ghumman said physical activities reduce the chances of heart attack.

“People should be encouraged to walk and do exercise and for achieving the goal they should be facilitated rather than being discouraged,” he said.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2023