Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\10\11\story_11-10-2009_pg12_9
Livestock doctors? team to visit Khirthar National Park today
Actual cause of death of ibexes not ascertained so far
By Amar Guriro
KARACHI: A team of the wildlife department, comprising officials and doctors, would visit the Khirthar National Park, where an emergency has been declared followed by the death of several ibexes after getting affected with a viral disease. The team also includes livestock doctors from the nearest town, Thana Bola Khan, which will go to the park and check the general conditions of the park and see whether the disease has stopped or is still spreading among the animals.
However, a team comprising experts of pathology laboratory Islamabad, which is supposed to be the only laboratory to detect viral diseases among animals, would also visit the park on Wednesday. The team would collect the sample of the dead animals and would try to get blood samples of the infected animals so that the actual reasons behind the death of animals in the park could be ascertained through DNA test.
The authorities of Sindh Wildlife Department (SWD) claimed Friday that due to the recent deadly viral diseases, which spread in the protected Khirthar National Park, about 46 Sindh ibexes have so far been reported dead. Rather than ascertaining the actual cause, the official of SWD and WWF Pakistan termed it as natural disaster and ?a retinue disease?. The authorities of both the important institutions have also claimed that the disaster ended and no more casualties were reported in this protected game reserve.
Last week, all of a sudden, Sindh ibexes started dying in the Pakistan?s second biggest national park, the Khirthar National Park. Provincial Minister for Wildlife Dr Daya Ram Essrani told this scribe that till October 9 about 46 ibexes have been reported dead when severe pneumonia spread in a herd of about 200 ibexes in the park. But on contact Provincial Conservator SWD Hussain Bux Bhaagat said that only 15 animals have so far been reported dead since September 25.
Bhaagat also rejected that his department has conceal such a report. ?It was simply a natural disaster that usually occurred because of the change of the weather or due to the over population in certain herds and there is no fault of the department that officials may conceal events,? he said.
Kirthar National Park is the second biggest national park of Pakistan that is also protected site in the United Nation?s list of National Parks and Equivalent Reserves since 1975 and also under International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).
The spread of diseases, for which wildlife officials claim that it is pneumonia, panicked the nature?s conservationists, environmentalists and wildlife lovers.
When asked that water pollution in the park beside the animals? habitats could be the possible reason for the diseases, Bhaagat rejected the hypothesis and said that there are five fountains in the area where diseases spread and his department has checked all these fountains, but no water pollution has so far been proved. ?Not only the animals, but wildlife staff also drinks water form these fountains, so it is not possible that its is polluted,? he said.
When he was asked about the fate of the dead bodies, Bhaagat said that his staff has taken all the bodies from affected areas and has buried them in the ground outside the park. ?Due to the diseases most of the bodies were decomposed and it was not possible to use them for trophies, and because they were affected with viral diseases, so preferred to burry them in the ground,? he said. He confirmed that the disease was limited only to Sindh ibexes.
This scribe attempted to talk to WWF-Pakistan official to get an official version as to what WWF is planning in this regard, but no contacts could be made with them. ?I am busy, talk to our natural resource management officials,? said Dr Ghulam Akbar of WWF-Pakistan. But when this scribe repeatedly attempted Natural Resource Management Coordinator WWF Rab Nawaz to get his statement, he refused to talk. Nawaz has informed this scribe earlier that a WWF-team of experts would visit the national park to ascertain the actual reason for the deaths.
Livestock doctors? team to visit Khirthar National Park today
Actual cause of death of ibexes not ascertained so far
By Amar Guriro
KARACHI: A team of the wildlife department, comprising officials and doctors, would visit the Khirthar National Park, where an emergency has been declared followed by the death of several ibexes after getting affected with a viral disease. The team also includes livestock doctors from the nearest town, Thana Bola Khan, which will go to the park and check the general conditions of the park and see whether the disease has stopped or is still spreading among the animals.
However, a team comprising experts of pathology laboratory Islamabad, which is supposed to be the only laboratory to detect viral diseases among animals, would also visit the park on Wednesday. The team would collect the sample of the dead animals and would try to get blood samples of the infected animals so that the actual reasons behind the death of animals in the park could be ascertained through DNA test.
The authorities of Sindh Wildlife Department (SWD) claimed Friday that due to the recent deadly viral diseases, which spread in the protected Khirthar National Park, about 46 Sindh ibexes have so far been reported dead. Rather than ascertaining the actual cause, the official of SWD and WWF Pakistan termed it as natural disaster and ?a retinue disease?. The authorities of both the important institutions have also claimed that the disaster ended and no more casualties were reported in this protected game reserve.
Last week, all of a sudden, Sindh ibexes started dying in the Pakistan?s second biggest national park, the Khirthar National Park. Provincial Minister for Wildlife Dr Daya Ram Essrani told this scribe that till October 9 about 46 ibexes have been reported dead when severe pneumonia spread in a herd of about 200 ibexes in the park. But on contact Provincial Conservator SWD Hussain Bux Bhaagat said that only 15 animals have so far been reported dead since September 25.
Bhaagat also rejected that his department has conceal such a report. ?It was simply a natural disaster that usually occurred because of the change of the weather or due to the over population in certain herds and there is no fault of the department that officials may conceal events,? he said.
Kirthar National Park is the second biggest national park of Pakistan that is also protected site in the United Nation?s list of National Parks and Equivalent Reserves since 1975 and also under International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).
The spread of diseases, for which wildlife officials claim that it is pneumonia, panicked the nature?s conservationists, environmentalists and wildlife lovers.
When asked that water pollution in the park beside the animals? habitats could be the possible reason for the diseases, Bhaagat rejected the hypothesis and said that there are five fountains in the area where diseases spread and his department has checked all these fountains, but no water pollution has so far been proved. ?Not only the animals, but wildlife staff also drinks water form these fountains, so it is not possible that its is polluted,? he said.
When he was asked about the fate of the dead bodies, Bhaagat said that his staff has taken all the bodies from affected areas and has buried them in the ground outside the park. ?Due to the diseases most of the bodies were decomposed and it was not possible to use them for trophies, and because they were affected with viral diseases, so preferred to burry them in the ground,? he said. He confirmed that the disease was limited only to Sindh ibexes.
This scribe attempted to talk to WWF-Pakistan official to get an official version as to what WWF is planning in this regard, but no contacts could be made with them. ?I am busy, talk to our natural resource management officials,? said Dr Ghulam Akbar of WWF-Pakistan. But when this scribe repeatedly attempted Natural Resource Management Coordinator WWF Rab Nawaz to get his statement, he refused to talk. Nawaz has informed this scribe earlier that a WWF-team of experts would visit the national park to ascertain the actual reason for the deaths.