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Detailed Ecological Assessment Report 2008 – Keti Bunder
considerably reduced the river flow to the extent that Kharo Chan and Shah
Bunder area that had good agrarian economy in the past and produced plenty of
high quality red rice, are now facing acute water shortage. During aabkalani
(flood season), water is stored in ponds for subsequent human and livestock use.
The agriculture has now deteriorated due to water logging and salinity of lands.
During off season (May to August), local people were dependent on agriculture
practices in the past and fish during other months of the year (Qureshi 1985).
Scarcity of fresh water in the area from the Indus and seawater intrusion into the
land has been degrading the area.
The earlier authors have described two systems of mangrove management;
formal and non-formal. In the formal system, Forest Department issues permits to
local communities in ‘Protected Forests’ in exercise of their customary rights for
collection of wood and livestock grazing against a nominal fee. However, neither
such fee has been collected for the last 15 years nor access been denied to any
body except replanted areas (Hoekstra et al.1997). In non-formal system of
management, Jat community being more influential in exploitation of vegetation
and fish resources of mangrove ecosystem have sub divided the mangrove areas
of Keti Bunder among villagers. An island allocated to a particular village is
permanently utilized by the village for grazing camels. When such islands
become devoid of vegetation due to continuous grazing, they are allocated
another island.
Large mammals: Almost all the potential sites around Keti Bunder were searched
to locate the existing large mammals and the GPS coordinates at different
locations were noted. Different sampling sites around Keti Bunder during
summer and winter surveys are given in Fig. 14 and Fig. 15 respectively. These
figures also show the distribution of large mammals around Keti Bunder. GPS
coordinates taken during summer and winter surveys are given in Appendix III
and Appendix IV respectively.
Spending eight days in the field (four days during summer survey and four days
during winter survey) and applying all the possible direct and indirect observation
methods, a total of 83 animals of 14 mammalian species, belonging to four orders
(Carnivora, Artiodactyla, Cetacea and Pholidota) were recorded from Keti
Bunder. Out of 14 recorded species of large mammals, 10 were observed directly
while the remaining four were recorded on the basis of indirect evidences like
tracks and interviews of locals and wildlife watchers from Sindh Wildlife
Department
Small mammals: During the survey for small mammals, a total of forty-three
species of small, medium and large were observed across the four sites, twenty
belonging to medium and large mammals and twenty-three belonging to small
mammals. Out of the 23 small mammal species observed or collected from the
five sites of the Indus for All Programme, 15 from Keti Bunder, 17 from Keenjhar,
19 from Chotiari, 14 from Pai forest and 9 from Keti Shah riverine forest. Most of
these species were recorded in summer. Regarding large mammals, after
spending eight days in the field and applying most of the possible direct and
indirect observation methods the team recorded a total of 83 animals of 14
mammalian species, belonging to four orders were recorded.
Reptiles and amphibians: During the surveys for reptiles and amphibians, out of
45 amphibian and reptilian species, possibly occurring in the area, 27 species
were observed or collected by the team. The remaining species have been
recorded through secondary data obtained through discussions with the local
WWF Pakistan – Indus for All Programme xvi