Kirthar National Park case: SHC extends ban on sand and gravel

KARACHI: Sindh High Court (SHC) Constitutional Bench expressed resentment over the government department’s failure to submit reply in hearing of Kirthar National Park case.

Justice Adnan Iqbal Chaudhry said that the Sindh Wildlife Department failed to submit reply in the case during hearing of a petition for preservation of the Kirthar National Park, and over poaching and extraction of sand and gravel within the park’s limits.

The high court in previous hearing of the case ordered the department to submit its reply until December 18 (today).

The bench extended the prohibition order with regard to extraction of sand and gravel from the park’s limits.

The court last year restrained the Sindh government and others from allotment of land within the notified boundaries of the Kirthar National Park.

The bench had directed the wildlife secretary to submit a complete breakup of wildlife activities launched in last 10 years and posts which were to be established for safety of rare and other species in the park.

The petitioners had submitted in the petition that the Kirthar Protected Areas in Sindh is one of the Pakistan’s largest national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and game reserves and was an important habitat for a variety of mammals, birds and reptiles where an estimated 276 species of fauna had been recorded.

They submitted that it was a protected area under the Sindh Wildlife, Protection, Preservation and Conservation Act 2020 and it was a wildlife sanctuary and habitat of 33 species of mammals, 23 species of reptiles, three species of amphibians, 29 species of fishes and 25 species of plants and the park was also known as the main habitat for the Sindh urial and ibex.

The petitioners’ counsel submitted that official respondents had failed to protect the Kirthar National Park, and on the contrary, they were allowing commercial businesses through leases of mines for extraction of sand and gravel though they were required to protect the park as well as old graveyards and historical places.

They submitted that due to illegal activities of land grabbers, lifting of sand and other encroachments, the biodiversity and ecology of the Kirthar park had been endangered. They said that deforestation, relentless sand and gravel mining, erosion of riverbeds, silting of rivers, loss of topsoil, and reduction of water retaining capacity of the region was rendering Karachi to unprecedented heatwaves and increasing the risk of food insecurity and floods.