KARACHI – The Sindh Wildlife Department has carelessly dumped its decades-old records containing invaluable information in an empty room of the provincial conservator’s office.
The office is located inside the historical building of the Freemason Lodge near Governor House.
Sources in the department told Pakistan Today that the records were previously kept in the library at the office. When the provincial government recently renovated the hundred-year old Freemason Lodge building, the records were shifted from the library to an empty room.
After the renovation work was completed, the department authorities never bothered to take them back to the library.
The official records include important documents about important wildlife species including Indus blind dolphins, Sindh ibexes, black bucks, urials, turtles, marsh crocodiles and other important birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals of the province.
The Sindh Wildlife Department is the official custodian of several wildlife sanctuaries, national parks and game reserves.
Some of them include Khirthar National Park and Haleji, Lungh and Drigh lakes.
The official data of the department reveals that the Wildlife Department is presently looking after one national park, 34 wildlife sanctuaries and 13 game reserves in the province and is the custodian of the records of these sites.
During the renovation work at the Freemason Lodge, skeletons, hides, trophies and stuffed animals, reptiles and birds, which were seized by the department in the last few years, were also stored away in the empty room.
It was planned that after the renovation of the building, these items would be shifted to the wildlife museum.
But the department still has to establish the museum at the main hall of the Freemason Lodge.
Provincial Wildlife Minister Dr Daya Ram Essrani told Pakistan Today that he was not aware of the issue.
“I don’t know anything about it yet and will ask the officials of my department. Then I will be able to comment on the issue,” he said.
