Wildlife of Pakistan - Otter Specialist Group

Volume 1: Issue 1: January - March, 2012Mrs. Gulshan Ara MirzaIslamabadEmail: zbmirza1936@gmail.comConservation awarenessof Margallah Hills National park: a success storyEarly start of summer season,late winters, prolonged dry spells,and short rainy seasons startedenvironmental miseries, which wealso share with other nations due toglobal climatic change. Locally weface the abnormalities of less flow ofsurface water, deepening of subsoilwater and short duration flow ofsprings in the mountains. We havebeen attempting remedies ratherthan preventives. That’s why we havemany National Parks, with the hopeto save parts of natural ecosystems.But it remained impossible for us toprevent ever-increasing pressure onour natural resources and naturalecosystems. For many reasonshuman population growth remainsuncontrolled. At the same timemajority population is uneducatedand unskilled and poor, even livesbelow the poverty line. Many ofthese poor communities merelysurvive against starvation andlive unhygienic life. Their negativeimpact on natural environment is ofdifferent nature than that of richerpeople.Margallah Hills National Park hasmore than 125,000 people, nativeto the area, living in 34 village ruralcommunities, within its notifiedboundary. Most of them are poor.Majority of these National Parkdwellers, and several living aroundit, traditionally use natural resourcesof the area, such as fuel wood,fodder, water, land for agricultureand pastures for livestock grazing.This pressure keeps increasing withthe alarming increase of population,making it ever difficult to achieve theobjectives of the National Park.As the ecosystems get degradedor modified by man, the urge tosave nature, at least to see itintact in the National Parks hasaroused determination to addressissues among some nature lovingenthusiasts. The Human Welfareand Nature Conservation Society(HWNCS) decided to interactwith the communities living in theMargallah Hills National Park,to understand and address theirissues, which in turn have negativeimpacts on this ecosystem. Underthis conservation strategy creationof environment awareness was oneof the projects, for which I was giventhe responsibility to take up withthe communities. I chose schoolchildren of class 3 to 7. The agegroups of students in these classesdo not easily forget the message,which is given to them in series ofslide shows. They were educatedon the components of environmentand their functions and linkageswith each other. They were madeto understand the unpleasantconsequences of disturbing thebalance of nature. Also once theylearnt that the denuded lands areslow in replenishment of subsoilWILDLIFE OF PAKISTAN37Preparation of beds for kitchen gardening © Gulshan Ara Mirza, Islamabad