Pakistan's houbara bustard - Bye bye birdy

It seems the poor houbara bustard just does not have any slack cut out for it. Wildlife conservationists rejoiced back in August last year when the Supreme Court (SC) delivered a much-hailed verdict banning the hunting of this rare and endangered bird. However, that joy has been short-lived as a five-member bench of the SC lifted the ban on Friday saying, “Examination of the laws clearly shows that permanent ban on hunting of houbara bustard is not envisaged.” The SC further stated that the provincial governments have their own discretionary powers to classify animals as “protected” or “game” species. One wonders what the wise court was thinking in this case as, if the provincial governments, particularly those of Sindh and Balochistan, were so well-versed in the protection of certain wildlife species they would have done something by now to make sure that game hunting of the houbara bustard not be allowed to take place.

However, that is not what has been happening. Arab sheikhs and princes have been wreaking havoc on this migratory bird that chooses Pakistan as its home for the winter season. Descending upon Pakistan from their princely abodes, these privileged UAE and Saudi hunters kill dozens — once more than 100 — of these endangered birds, leaving us with a dark stain on our responsibility to curb such hunting practices and protect these animals. Our federal government must be rejoicing though, considering the fact that it was against the ban on all hunting permits since it was enforced in August because it was somehow detrimental to our foreign policy! At least that is one less thing for the government to worry about now.

In its ruling, the SC also noted that the Balochistan Act 2014 places the houbara bustard both in the protected and game categories. Now how is it expected that the governments of Sindh and Balochistan will ever side with this endangered bird? Permits and hunting licences have always been granted to the wealthy Arabs to hunt down viciously with the aid of falcons this bird whose numbers are seriously dwindling. The government had asked the SC to allow “sustainable hunting” of this bird; what should have been sustainable was the August 19 ban imposed by the SC, not this leeway granted to the foreign dignitaries allowed to decimate this beautiful bird.