Pakistan's Karachi in danger of losing wildlife
Sparrows, parrots almost disappeared due to predatory birds,
disappearance of nesting places
By Aamir latif
KARACHI,
Pakistan
Pakistan's largest city
Karachi is today a picture of glossy skyscrapers, bustling shopping centers,
shanty slums, and massive traffic jams like any other metropolis around the
world.
Although it is hard to
believe, the metropolis -- home to over 15 million people -- boasted a rich
wildlife up until a few decades ago.
Once a natural habitat
for colorful birds, Chinkara deer, and predators like leopard, the city has
lost its precious wildlife not only through the ravages of time, but also
because of human influence, mainly unplanned urbanization, and indiscriminate
killing.
Alteration of habitat,
a direct result of unplanned urbanization and pollution, has badly hit the
population of urban birds like house sparrow and parrots in the past two
decades, according to the experts.
Instead of these
human-friendly birds -- which signify the quality of air -- other bird species
such as kites, crows, and mynas occupy the skies of today's Karachi.
"For younger
generation, it is hard to believe that Karachi had had a strong wildlife. But
this is true. The city's western, eastern and northern outskirts had served as
a habitat for several rare birds and animals, including leopards and dear until
1960s," Muhammad Moazzam Khan, an advisor to World Wide Fund for Nature
(WWF) Pakistan, told Anadolu Agency.
The last Chinkara
deer, also known as gazelles and can be found in India, Pakistan and Iran, were
also spotted in the remits of Karachi in 1994, according to Khan.
The city's western
outskirt had also served as one of the favorite hunting sites for professional
hunters during British colonial era. An undated picture shared by Khan showed a
British hunter together with some locals with two dead leopards lying in front
of him.
"Presence of
leopards itself is a proof that there was a wildlife in Karachi to feed these
predators," Khan said adding: "But it has gone almost extinct due to
a perpetual influx of population, cutting of forests, massive constructions,
and pollution-caused asphyxia [oxygen deficiency]".
He was referring to an
unstoppable streaming of population into the city after independence of
Pakistan in 1947. The city's population in 1947 was just 450,000, which rapidly
jumped to over one million in the following four years.
The colossal rise in
population, Khan said, flanked by inadvertent urbanization, gradually destroyed
the natural habitat, eventually leading to extinction of several birds,
reptiles, and animals like leopard, deer, hedgehog, snakes, and others in this
part of the country.
Situation in other big
cities like Lahore, Faisalabad, Peshawar and Quetta is relatively better as
they still have "marginal areas" to protect their wildlife to a
certain extent.
"We cannot say
this is satisfactory but relatively better compared to Karachi because they
still have a village life as well," Khan said.
Where did parrots,
sparrows disappear?
Experts see a rapid
drop in nestling places by human influence, poor diet and rising air pollution
as key reasons behind disappearance of these birds.
According to latest
surveys, Khan said, the population of parrots and sparrows has dwindled 80% and
70 % respectively in Karachi for the past two decades.
Cutting of trees and
grasslands for wood, and construction purposes, on the one hand, has deprived
these birds of their nestling places, and proper diet whereas, the increasing
pollution and garbage sites, on the other, have led to increase in population
of "opportunistic" birds like kites, crows, and mynas.
Khan singled out
kites, which are predators as well, as a major threat to sparrows and parrots.
"Growing
pollution and garbage sites have increased the population many folds of
opportunistic birds, which need food. And for that, these seed eaters, especially
sparrows are their main target", Khan noted.
"Also, huge
plantation of "outlandish" trees like conocarpus, mesquite, and
eucalyptus, which otherwise have no disadvantage except for they do not provide
nestling place to sparrow and parrots", he maintained.
Mesquite -- small
leguminous trees -- have inflicted more damage on wildlife. Unlike eucalyptus,
and conocarpus, it has spread out automatically causing damage to whatever left
in the habitat of the city's suburbs.
Shabina Faraz, a
Karachi-based analyst who frequently writes on environment, shared a similar
view.
"The lethal
combination of dropping nestling places, dearth of food, and predators like
kites, have almost vanished sparrows in Karachi", she stressed.
Not only sparrows and
parrots, she added, kites had forced several species of seabirds to move away
from Karachi's beaches.
Cutting of fruit
gardens, which once sprawled on the eastern outskirts of Karachi, is cited as
another reason behind disappearance of parrots.
Effects on the environment
Experts reckon that a
sharp rise in population of wild pigeons in Karachi has also wreaked havoc on
the environment.
The rapid growth in
pigeons’ population is mainly because of numerous sites where citizens drop
seeds and other birds feed as an act of mercy, attracting thousands of pigeons
on each site every day.
These sites in the
metropolis have been named as "Kabootar chowk" (pigeon roundabout) by
citizens.
"This is not
mercy but senselessness. By doing this, they are actually inviting trouble for
themselves in the form of diseases and allergies," Faraz said, warning
that "the trouble will be stupendous if any major disease breaks out due
to pigeons".
She also said, the
droppings of the pigeons added to the decaying of the infrastructure.
Khan, however,
appeared to be unsure about the effects of damage to wildlife on urban ecology.
"No doubt, every
animal or bird has a role in balancing the ecological system. But we still
don’t know how it has affected the city’s environment," he said.
Faraz said that
sparrows, parrots and other human-friendly birds would eat insects, flies, and
mosquitoes, and their disappearance disturbed the balance in the environment
but "major effects are still invisible, which would come into light in the
near future".
Publish in https://www.aa.com.tr 29 October 2019