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Detailed Ecological Assessment Report 2008 – Keenjhar Lake
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The ‘Detailed Ecological Assessment Study Report’ by the Indus for All
Programme provides extensive and updated (April 2008) status of various
ecological aspects of the Programme’s four priority sites. These include a
summer survey (June to July) and winter survey (November to February) of
vegetation, reptiles and amphibians, avi-fauna, mammals (which have been
divided into large and small), fisheries (divided into freshwater and marine) waterquality
and limnology which includes phytoplankton, zooplankton and
physicochemical properties of the water at the programme sites. The floral
aspects of the study is available in a separate report titles
To ensure the authenticity of the reports, maintain the level of scientific approach
and install a sense of ownership at government level, a large proportion of the
consultancy’s were outsourced to Pakistan Natural History Museum, Zoological
Survey of Pakistan, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, University
of Karachi and University of Sindh.
This detailed ecological assessment is planned under of the completion of
Programme Output A.1.2.2 – “Detailed ecological assessment of Keenjhar Lake”
Keenjhar Lake: Keenjhar Lake is situated at a distance of 113 km from Karachi
and about 20 km North and North – East of Thatta town between the longitude of
68 and 69 o NE and latitude 24 and 25 o N. It is a freshwater Lake having an area
of about 145 km 2 (Anon 1999). The maximum depth of the Lake is 8m. Keenjhar
Lake is located in stony desert, composed of alternating layers of limestone and
sandstone. Historically it is formed by the union of two Lakes, Sonehri and
Keenjhar through the construction of an embankment on their eastern side in
1950s. Originally these Lakes came into being when River Indus changed its
course, cutting-off these Lakes. Before the construction of embankment, the
Lakes were fed by a dozen hill torrents on the western side. Now it gets most of
its water from Indus River through canal. With this background, Keenjhar may be
regarded as semi natural Lake. The Lake is fed by the Kalri Baghar canal
originating from Kotri Barrage that enters at the northwest corners, and by many
small seasonal streams entering on the western and northern shores. The only
outlet is through the Jam branch canal at the southeast corner of the Lake (Anon,
2006). The Lake is known as the largest freshwater Lake of the country and its
main source is from Indus River, however, some proportion of water is
contributed from the run off from the adjacent hills and torrents. The local
villagers residing around the Lake are using water for their daily consumption
(Anon, 2006). Keenjhar Lake is the main source of water supply to Karachi and
parts of Thatta district.
Large mammals: Almost all the potential sites around Keenjhar Lake as well as in
the buffer zone were surveyed and different sampling sites and the distribution of
large mammals around Keenjhar were covered. Spending eight days in the field
(four days during summer survey and four days during winter survey), a total of
26 animals of nine mammalian species, belonging to three orders (Carnivora,
Artiodactyla and Pholidota) were recorded from the study area. Out of nine
recorded species of large mammals, six were observed directly while the
remaining three were recorded on the basis of indirect evidences like tracks,
faeces and interviews of locals and wildlife watchers from Sindh Wildlife
Department. Out of the nine recorded species, one is Vulnerable (VU), four Near
Threatened (NT) and four Least Concern (LC) according to the IUCN Red List of
WWF Pakistan – Indus for All Programme
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