Pakistan: KPK prohibited Qatari Prince from ‘Houbara Bustard’ hunting

Pakistan: KPK prohibited Qatari Prince from ‘Houbara Bustard’ hunting

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) government said that it has rejected the application by the prince from Qatar to allow him to hunt the "rare and precious" birds especially houbara bustard in the protected areas of the province.

Photo Source: Chowrangi

"This is the second time we rejected the application of the Qatari prince. Last week they again wrote to us to allow him to hunt the precious and rare houbara bustard in the province, "said Ishtiaq Urmar, advisor to Chief Minister Pervez Khattak for Environment, Forests and Wildlife, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said there were two reasons the application of the prince from Qatar was rejected.

"First they don't have a good track record. Whenever they went for hunting, they annoyed the local community by damaging their crops and excessively hunting precious and rare birds. Secondly, we have signed treaties with international community to protect these rare species in our region. These are the reasons we didn't give permission to this Qatari prince for hunting in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa," he said.

"Besides forcing him to pay Rs 80,000 ?as fine, we confiscated all his birds and set them free," Ishtiaq Urmar said.He said the Qatari prince used to go to Balochistan and Sindh for hunting, where local residents had staged protest demonstrations against them for allegedly damaging their crops.

What are Houbara Bustards?

Houbara bustards are a rare breed of migratory birds the size of a chicken. They migrate in their thousands every winter from Central Asia to the arid planes of southern Pakistan.

Once a thriving species, the houbara bustard population has drastically fallen in recent years and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has placed it on its "red list" of threatened species.

Its current global population is estimated at between 50,000 to 100,000 birds.

The hunting of houbara bustards is banned in most countries, including Pakistan. But every year Pakistan issues special hunting permits to dignitaries from the Middle East as part of what many call "soft diplomacy".

Each permit allows the holder to hunt 100 birds in a 10-day hunting spree, but the limits are often exceeded, locals and conservationists say.

The Arabs cherish houbara hunting both as a sport and because its meat is considered an aphrodisiac.

IUCN believes hunting of houbara bustards on their wintering grounds is the main reason for their dwindling population.