First of all, the PML (N)’s official election symbol (that appeared on the ballot paper) is that of a Bengal Tiger, which are NOT lions but tigers. The Bengal Tiger is an endangered species with fewer than 2,500 left in the wild (mostly in India, Bangladesh and Nepal). They are no longer found in the wild in our part of the subcontinent – the last known Bengal Tiger in Pakistan was shot dead in 1906 near Bahawalpur, according to British records.

You can, however, find them in zoos and some private facilities in the country where they are supposed to be used for educational purposes, and certainly not for political campaigning! The white tigress that was paraded during PML(N) rallies in Lahore in the run-up to the elections (and which allegedly died or mysteriously came back to life) had recessive gene mutation. The white tiger is a recessive mutant of the Bengal Tiger. Now that election fever has subsided and it is no longer a politicised issue, I decided to dig around and find out the truth behind the case of the missing white tigress – a story that had gone viral in the days leading up to May 11th. Was the white tigress used in PML(N)’s campaigns still alive and healthy? Or had she in fact passed away?

The white tigress first came to the public’s notice when she was brought to the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) in Lahore on May 7th 2013. She was exhausted, and in fact severely dehydrated. In the last few days leading up to May 11th, the temperature in Lahore had reached 40 degrees Celsius and the young white tigress had been dragged to many of the PML(N) rallies, often being chained in the open back of a Vigo. The tigress belonged to the family of former PML(N) MNA, Mian Marghoob, who owns a large farm in Mehmood Booti in Lahore. In his compound are three other tigers – two are orange-coated Bengal tigers and there is one more white tigress, a large female called Sandy.

The white tigress at UVAS. -Photo provided by author.

UVAS has a pet center, an open facility where people can bring in their pets for treatment. The vets there diagnosed a more serious condition: pulmonary effusion (water in the lungs). They gave the white tigress intravenous therapy and noted that she looked seriously underfed, with a shrunken face. Since they could not keep her overnight, as they don’t have those kinds of facilities, after a few hours they sent her back to Mehmood Booti with her keepers. Later they were pressurised to say to the media that the tigress was not seriously ill but “in good health”, merely suffering from a cough. A photo, however, was taken of the listless white tigress lying on the floor while at UVAS. That was when word got out to the media that the tigress was very ill and weak, and probably dying. Journalists began calling up Mian Marghoob and his relatives, Mian Idris and Mian Zia, inquiring about the tigress. The owners of the tigress, panicking at the thought of a media trial focusing on the poor treatment of the tigress and the embarrassment of the PML(N) election symbol “dying” before May 11th, came up with their own strategy.

The white tigress that was brought into the pet facility at UVAS. -Photo provided by author

They invited the most well-known journalist who works for the BBC to visit Mehmood Bhooti and see for himself that the tigress was in fact alive. The journalist, who saw the older white tigress Sandy padding up and down in her concrete and mesh den reported that: “after seeing the tiger in its den, the BBC can confirm it is still alive. It is in fact in rude good health”. The BBC journalist had no idea that there were in fact TWO white tigresses owned by Mian Marghoob’s family and never asked to see the smaller one. He never asked to be taken to the facility in the back of the compound where the sick (and perhaps dead) tigress was being kept.

There is in fact, a simple way of verifying if the smaller white tigress is still alive and well. According to WWF Biodiversity Director Uzma Khan, “Every tiger has a different pattern of stripes on it, just like humans have different fingerprints, so if that tigress is still well and alive, why don’t they bring it over or send fresh pictures to the WWF?” She says she can identify the smaller tigress from a distinctive triangular mark on her left hind leg.

The stripe pattern analysis is actually enough to identify if she is indeed alive or dead. All that is needed is a recent picture to compare with the one that was taken at UVAS. The BBC took pictures of Sandy, the bigger tigress, and they can easily compare her stripes with the picture of the smaller white tigress at UVAS. This might be all the proof we have, since Mian Marghoob’s family is now saying that the smaller tigress will no longer come out to take part in rallies.

But perhaps the bigger issue is not whether she is still alive or dead, but that the tigers at Mehmood Booti and other wild animals used during PML(N) campaigns – there were 3 lions on a truck on MM Alam road during a victory rally just a few days ago – are kept in poor conditions, paraded around and probably drugged during rallies. The lions on MM Alam road were being goaded to roar by sticks during the victory rally. “These are not domestic animals, they are wild animals with wild instincts and they cannot cope with all the loud sounds and mistreatment at rallies”, explains Uzma Khan.

She points out that under the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) guidelines on the “Acquisition and Management of Big Cats in Captivity” which were approved by the Ministry of Climate Change in 2011, it is prohibited to take big cats to public places in a cage or a leash. She adds, “CITES says in order to import a big cat you have to ensure proper care”. Wildlife farms that have licenses for keeping and breeding wildlife have to be monitored carefully by wildlife officials who should visit the facility regularly to ensure that it is up to the mark. “Captive animals are supposed to be used for public education, so that people can learn about conservation”.

They are certainly not supposed to be used for campaigning purposes, and it is really pathetic that they are being used as an election symbol to make some of our political leaders look more fierce and aggressive. In disgust, the activist and animal lover, Feryal Gauhar filed a writ petition in the Lahore High Court last week seeking to uphold the CITES guidelines. The court has called WWF-Pakistan to appear as an expert organisation, along with other organisations like the Punjab Wildlife Department. The first hearing has taken place already and the next hearing will take place at the Green Bench in Lahore headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah tomorrow. The complainant would like to see a ban on displaying big cats in rallies and improvements in private facility inspections. The Election Commission of Pakistan will be called as well since they are the ones who agreed to awarding the “sher” as an election symbol in the first place.

If our newly elected political leaders really want to prove that they are wiser and more civilized this time around they should stop their followers from abusing these wild animals.

The writer is an award-winning environmental journalist based in Islamabad, who also covers climate change and health issues. She can be reached at rinasaeed@gmail.com

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.

“Doctor Haji! Please check if I have hernia,” I said, vehemently protesting being sent to Psychiatrist. There it was; a fully developed left inguinal. Surgery was performed and I was advised to come again after four months for the right side. Instead of following his advice, I started reading about abdominal anatomy so that I could prevent it from developing further. And indeed, I gave it a valiant try.

Hernia is a medical condition pertaining to intestinal displacement, heard quite often by people but rarely properly understood. Generally, doctors do have a propensity to ignore a check up for hernia unless specifically alluded to by the patient. They are prone to attend other common complaints. There is a sizable percentage of patients who remain unaware that they are carrying a hernia. So, detection at the first visit remains mostly erroneous.

There are many patients who are aware of the onset of hernia but try to deal with it themselves with the help of belts and other methods. Based on my personal experience in respect of the inguinal hernia, it is concluded that the best option is to go for timely surgery. It is the only sure option to avoid further deterioration of health. There may be one-in-million case that may be able to manage to live with it. Nevertheless, the best possible recommendation is to seek advice for surgical solutions. Belts and other precautionary measures are only temporarily useful under specific conditions.

Intestinal protrusion in adjacent spaces is caused by a weakened muscular support system within the abdomen. The first to go is peritoneum which allows intestine to slip and slide pushing itself through to undesired spaces. Types of hernias are categorised accordingly. Inguinal hernias are on the left and right side of the lower abdomen (above the groin). These may appear at any age but sports-persons are easy victims to such type. Unattended inguinal type may develop into a type known as scrotal hernia. Therefore, it is in best interest of the patient to seek a surgical solution at the earliest. Another route intestines may take is above the femur area; it is known as femoral hernia. This type is more common in female patients. In case of children, the umbilical type is also sometimes observed, the area involved is navel. Most of these types are quite painful and may require emergent attention.

A very common hernia in middle and old age is called hiatus hernia, especially the sliding type. The stomach is partially or fully detached with respect to diaphragma. The function of the Esophagus is disturbed and a life-long discomfort sets in. It is associated with GERD (Reflux regurgitation). Most people, with varying severity of the disease, live with the problem. Only in very acute cases, is the patient asked to go in for an operation. One of the treatments suggested by the doctors is to have a raised bed. In the long run, this may add to the misery of developing inguinal and other types of hernia (if it was not present earlier).

Other abnormal protrusions of the intestine are also possible, which would result in complications such as looping, obstructions, etc. The intestinal part may find its way causing partial blockage and distension in the lower abdomen. In rare cases, a condition known as intussusceptions is also possible, which may cause gangrene of the bowel. Whereas it is most common in children below age four, possibility cannot be ruled out at any stage later in life, involving lower abdominal abnormalities.

I have ultimately undergone an operation on my right side of inguinal hernia as well, which could not be stopped from aggravating, although I managed to extend the period from four months to 24 years. Mesh hernioplasty is now well established and should be opted as first hand treatment, without wasting time. Proper positioning of mesh and suturing is an art and should be adequately updated so as to keep the discomfort and pain of these patients to a minimum. Due care should also be taken to avoid contraction of abdominal infection. Doctors have to guide patients about the recurrence, as hernia tends to show itself again after some years (in some patients because of many reasons including constitution). It is felt that due to lack of knowledge about the post-operative care for hernia on the part of patients, recurrence occurs. Doctors need to brief and forewarn them to fully appreciate ensuing difficulties and pitfalls.

Complete set of written instructions, preferably in a well-documented approved format are recommended to be given to patients who have been operated upon. Although many experienced surgeons give guidance, there is grave risk of missing some very important parts of the instruction, that may cause a great deal of trouble to the patient.

Complaints about constipation, nausea and other maladies are common, which can be avoided beforehand. Patients are recommended to equip themselves fully well with the information regarding post-operative care through reading, as much as possible. Details are available on the internet. The recovery phase heavily depends on one’s age, built and habits. Above all, information pays. I am a firm believer of “A little knowledge for self-awareness is not a dangerous thing!”

The writer is a retired PTCL Chief Engineer.

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group. 

I told the Pathan that he could use the computer to do the work himself and save the company a lot of money.

“The computer is not for me. I am an uneducated man from Waziristan,” was his reply. He had tried to take computer courses near the office but the timings never suited him so he had given up on computers.

I told him the Internet was for everyone and went on to YouTube and typed “Excel tutorial Pushto”. And up came a bunch of videos that explained how to use Microsoft Excel in his own native language.

From then he was hooked. He had discovered that he could learn almost anything in his own language from his own home, at his own time for free.  A few weeks later, he had created an email account and had started creating the company invoices himself and saved his company a significant amount of money by increasing his own productivity.

Let’s assume that we all have a few common goals. We would like to help educate our country, end poverty and create wealth for the average citizen – not just the elite. We want better doctors, engineers, mechanics and teachers inside Pakistan and not just those that managed to emigrate abroad.

Now, let’s look at how YouTube would actually help us achieve these goals faster.

Over 72 hours of videos are uploaded to YouTube every single minute. Even if only 1 per cent of the uploaded content is useful educational content that is more educational content produced in a single week that is available for free for students to watch than is produced in an entire year across all of the Universities in Pakistan.

Last year, when I was invited by the IBA University to lecture their students in Karachi I had figured that the cost was too high to actually travel from Dubai. So I gave the lecture over Skype. As I figured that I was doing the work anyway, I recorded the lecture and uploaded it to YouTube. An hour of a teacher’s time for 30 students, which then ended up being watched over 2,000 times by other students across the world at a later date. I did the work once of preparing and giving the lecture. The lecture is still doing the “work” for me by being on YouTube. Teachers that teach using the pre-YouTube methods, end up repeating what they said once in a lecture over and over again every year – while the YouTube generation of professors can think and research new content while at the same time reaching a bigger audience with their lectures.

It saddens me to see that the next generation of Pakistanis is missing out not only on my lectures – but millions of other lectures from people around the country and the world.  That the only people able to get access to University professors will be those that can afford to move to a city and afford the luxury of a fulltime formal education. Reading is not a large part of our culture, so blocking YouTube which is video content and the most likely to be used for new people on the Internet has an even greater impact of slowing the spread of knowledge.

The greatest gift that we are given from the world for a free education for our citizens is turned away. Instead, we prefer our citizens to work from hand-me-down books often out of date or through curriculums set by bureaucrats that don’t even have access to YouTube.

Whenever someone mentions a great author I should read, I usually go first to YouTube and search for the author. I then visit www.audiothief.com and download the mp3 version of the lecture and sync it to my phone. I can then listen to the author talking about their book while going for a walk or a drive. This is the era of the self-learner and how I also recommend for my students to keep up with the latest knowledge. They can get the essence of what an author says in their book by listening to a few of their lectures or interviews at their own time for free and it’s available the instant it comes online rather than having to wait for the book to arrive at their village a few years or decades later.

Students in colleges proudly tell me how they bypass the YouTube ban using proxies, but I also think if we end up creating laws that citizens want to proudly break then we encourage a culture of law breaking. I would, however, encourage medical students to find out about the latest medical procedures and how they are performed on YouTube than to work from outdated information they obtained from old books.

The focus in the Internet economy is away from hardware (school buildings) and moves to software (teachers and content). The greatest impact on anyone’s education is the quality of the teacher – not the number of students in a classroom or the quality of the building they are in. YouTube simply gives us access to better teachers such as Virtual University and Khan Academy Urdu and for the past six months we haven’t been able to access these teachers.

Pakistan’s penetration of Internet is approximately 9 per cent or 18 million people. That means that 18 million people have a chance of updating their knowledge at no cost to the government. Compare that to the cost of building a University that teaches a few thousand students and costs a few million rupees.  Rather than focusing on trying to get aid from around the world, we should focus on making better use of the resources we already have.

Internet Users as a Percentage of Population. Source: World Bank on Google Public Data

In Pakistan, more people are killed in car accidents every year than are killed due to terrorism. The safest thing to do would be to ban all citizens from using their cars and force them to walk instead. Of course, we don’t do this, but instead we work on asking citizens to use seat belts and take many other policies that make driving safer. We should look at a similar approach for the Internet rather than the easier approach of shutting it off.

Let me just take care of a few ideas that will come up in response to this article.  Building “PakTube” is not difficult. Websites such as Vimeo.com already exist but the problem is that YouTube has millions of hours of content already on it. Are we going to go on a mission to convince the two billion Internet users around the world that they should move over to PakTube in order to serve the 18 million Pakistanis better? Otherwise, we would be saying to the world’s teachers, thinkers and content creators that we don’t need your ideas – we can create all our own content. And of course, if you do move over to PakTube you should trust us that your content is safe with us as we won’t simply shut down all of PakTube the next time one person misbehaves.

Secondly, I am not sure there is any religion that encourages the suppression of knowledge or the spread of education. Countries such as Saudi Arabia and Indonesia have managed to block the inappropriate content and help their citizens get access to knowledge on YouTube, so I am sure Pakistan can too.  YouTube is also one of the greatest sources of religious knowledge and is full of scholars.

Our Internet policy makers need to understand the term “User Generated Content”. This means that users – people like you and I – are creating the content for websites. Facebook and YouTube are two of millions of sites that provide this ability. This means that any one of the billion plus users that these sites get can post almost anything. As any teacher trying to manage a class of 20 students knows this can be a difficult task, but when you have over a billion users someone, somewhere will say something inappropriate. We have the ability to block individual content – asking the world to conform to our stricter censorship laws is less likely.

Our Internet policy makers need to be proactive so that core software like Skype, Wikipedia, Google and other sites that provide millions of jobs are not shut when the next incident happens.

Technology companies and freelancers will have a harder time convincing clients to move their business to Pakistan once a client understands that YouTube is blocked here – how can you compete in a global economy without such core services?

If I were a politician, I too would hate the Internet and YouTube. It gives the average citizens the chance to criticize me and spread news amongst themselves. I would long for the days in which there was only PTV so I could control what the public saw and only show how great I am. I would hate the fact that anyone on their mobile phone could take a video of anything irregular happening during the elections and upload to YouTube. I would hate citizen journalists trying to fight corruption or voicing their opinion, as I would lose control.

YouTube is the greatest gift we have had and instead of suppressing it, our government should encourage the growth of it along with 3G (fast internet over phones) so that people can get more content for free. Farmers can learn to farm better. Doctors can learn to heal better. Teachers can learn to educate better.

Taking 1 per cent of our own education budget and using it to encourage the growth of the Internet, including YouTube, throughout the country will have a greater impact on the country than investing the same amount in building more buildings or spreading outdated curriculum.

On behalf of those that want to educate more people faster, as well as those that have the desire to grow their own knowledge, I would request that the PTA and Government to do what they can to unblock YouTube.

Are you also impacted by the block of YouTube? If so, tell us how YouTube being unavailable is impacting your ability to study or earn.

Amir Anzur is the Dean of Webpreneur Academy, teaching people to use the Internet to improve their lives.

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.

Clearly “sustainable development” was becoming meaningless and hence, a new buzzword called the “green economy” became the theme of last year’s UN Conference on Sustainable Development or Rio+20 as it was called (to mark 20 years since the Earth Summit). Given the current global economic crisis, expectations were extremely low for the UN Conference that was held in Rio de Janeiro last June. As it turned out the Rio+20 Summit produced very little of note. Kumi Naidoo, the outspoken executive director of Greenpeace called it: “A failure of epic proportions”.

Kumi Naidoo was rightly disappointed for carbon emissions are growing faster than ever today and climate scientists are warning us that we are heading for a climate tipping point. This is the point where we will have runaway climate change with disastrous impacts, especially for the more vulnerable countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and low lying island states. The number of endangered species around the world also continues to grow, as do extinctions. In fact, some scientists believe we may already be entering the sixth great extinction event – the last great extinction event occurred 65 millions years ago, when the dinosaurs died off.

Today, the 7 billion people on Earth are changing the planet so rapidly that we’re entering a new geological age called the Anthropocene, one in which “humans are the dominant force on the global ecosystem”. Now a group of international scientists are arguing that in the Anthropocene, we must abandon the old thinking on sustainable development, which was defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” They say that for the past 26 years, “a single concept has shaped international policy: the three pillars of sustainable development – economic, social and environmental”. This concept has clearly not delivered on its promise of a more sustainable world.

The scientists are now redefining the problem, “by replacing the three pillars with a clear and simple idea: an economy, within society, within Earth’s life support system. A healthy planet is a prerequisite for healthy, thriving, prosperous lives”. From this, they say, “we need a new definition for sustainable development: development that meets the needs of the present while safeguarding the Earth’s life-support system, on which the welfare of current and future generations depends”. Their ideas were recently published in Nature magazine.

One of the outcomes of the Rio+20 Summit was the agreement by UN member states to launch a process to develop a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which will build upon the Millennium Development Goals and converge with the post 2015 development agenda. In the wake of recent meetings held at the UN on the definition of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the group of international scientists is arguing for a set of six universal SDGs that link poverty eradication to protection of the Earth’s life support. They say that: “ending poverty and safeguarding the Earth’s life support system must be the twin priorities for the Sustainable Development Goals”.

The scientists point out that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), set to expire in 2015, have helped focus international efforts on eight poverty-related goals. However, despite successes in some areas, many MDGs have not been met. Economic gains, for example, have come at the expense of environmental protection.

“Climate change and other global environmental threats will increasingly become serious barriers to further human development,” says lead author of the group, Professor David Griggs from Monash University in Australia. “Humans are transforming the Earth’s life support system – the atmosphere, oceans, waterways, forests, ice sheets and biodiversity that allow us to thrive and prosper – in ways likely to undermine development gains”, he added. Co-author Professor Johan Rockström, Director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre said, “Mounting research shows we are now at the point that the stable functioning of Earth systems is a prerequisite for a thriving global society and future development.”

Their new set of goals is: thriving lives and livelihoods, food security, water security, clean energy, healthy and productive ecosystems, and governance for sustainable societies. The targets beneath each goal include updates and expanded targets under the MDGs, including ending poverty and hunger, combating HIV/AIDS, and improving maternal and child health. But they also define a set of planetary “must haves”: climate stability, the reduction of biodiversity loss, protection of ecosystem services, a healthy water cycle and oceans, sustainable nitrogen and phosphorus use, clean air and sustainable material use.

Their new research is linked to Future Earth, a new international research programme designed to “develop the knowledge required for societies worldwide to face challenges posed by global environmental change and to identify opportunities for a transition to global sustainability.”

The writer is an award-winning environmental journalist based in Islamabad, who also covers climate change and health issues. She can be reached at rinasaeed@gmail.com

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.

Today, with less than two years remaining before the deadline of 2015, the UN is already conducting post-2015 consultations on what should follow this ambitious agenda. However, while the MDGs have helped to focus attention on poverty, it is clear that economic inequality is on an upward trend. International and inter-regional class divides have become too deep to ignore.

MDGs progress has too often failed to reach those most in need: women and girls, those living in extreme poverty and those living in remote or rural areas. It is also clear that some issues, such as environmental sustainability require much greater resources and political commitment to achieve progress, given the new challenge of climate challenge and the growing need for energy.

Supporters of the MDGs argue that meeting all the targets by 2015 was always going to be a huge global challenge, and several are unlikely to be met, “but they have proved highly effective at galvanising global commitment and have achieved significant progress in many places around the world”.

Unfortunately, Pakistan is not one of those places. According to the UNDP, Pakistan lags behind on 25 indicators and is on track on only eight indicators to complete the unfinished MDGs agenda (the targets were set by each individual country). First the good news: Pakistan has achieved the target of access to improved water resources when three sources of improved water are taken into account: tap water, hand pumps and electric motor propelled water. Pakistan also has one of the highest ratios of women parliamentarians in the South Asian region. The proportion of women in the national parliament (National Assembly and Senate) is 19per cent. Similarly prevalence of HIV among adults is low and incidence of diarrhea in children under five years age has been low (10 per cent).

Now for the bad news: the proportion of the population below the minimum level of dietary energy consumption has increased in the past four years. This is a core indicator for assessing the level of food insecurity in the country. The reasons that contributed to food insecurity in the country include the two-digit inflation (and a much higher food inflation) over the last four years, which has significantly decreased the purchasing power of the people, especially the poor.

Progress has also been slow on gender equality and women’s empowerment, especially when it comes to the Gender Parity Index (GPI) for youth literacy, secondary and primary education. Finally, the progress on the indicator related to the reduction of child mortality is “completely off the track”. Currently in Pakistan, the number of deaths of children under 1 year of age per 1000 live births is 75 against the target of 40. Neonatal mortality in Pakistan is actually increasing.

Volatile economic growth, persistent inequalities and lack of structural transformation in the last decade have all contributed to pulling the country back, coupled with internal conflicts and growing environmental issues. Environmental degradation costs the country at least three per cent of the annual GDP, with a disproportionate impact upon the poor and most vulnerable. There is also around $7 billion loss each year due to security related expenditures, while Foreign Direct Investment in the country has been on decline from $ 5,152 million in 2008 to $ 2,205 million in 2010.

Pakistan has achieved the target of access to improved water resources

We also have a tax to GDP ratio of less than 10 per cent, which is far less than the regional average of 15-25 per cent. According to the UNDP, “the limited fiscal space constrains the government’s ability to spend more on social sector and development priorities”. We also have glaring regional disparities (net primary enrollment in Punjab is 61 per cent as compared to Balochistan 44 per cent and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 52 per cent). Today, 60 per cent of Pakistan’s population is under 30 years of age and there are over 3.5 million new labour force entrants each year.

Pakistan is not expected to live up to its promises on meeting most of its MDGs targets. Now, as the target date of 2015 nears, global consultations have started to discuss and propose the post-2015 development agenda that will succeed the MDGs framework.  The discussions include global and regional face to face consultations with diverse stakeholders, online thematic consultations and national consultations in more than 100 countries including Pakistan. The objective of the entire consultation process is to get feedback from diverse stakeholders “on the contours of the post-2015 development agenda” according to UNDP-Pakistan.

The UNDP is leading the consultations process in Pakistan on behalf of the UN Resident Coordinator and consultative meetings have been held with government representatives, experts and civil society organisations in Islamabad, Lahore, Quetta, Karachi and Peshawar. All the different views have been noted on a webpage  and everyone is encouraged to join the discussion.

The main messages emerging so far are: the MDGs framework is useful – but needed focus on localisation, availability, accessibility and reliability of data for reporting. There was also a need for political ownership and a role for civil society. Naturally, in Pakistan peace and personal security was ranked as the number one goal in a survey that was conducted online during the consultation process. There were also calls for clear implementation plans with roles and responsibilities at the national and global level.

The main output of all these consultations will be a Key Messages Report on the Pakistan specific priorities for the post-2015 development agenda. This output will be submitted to the UN before 31st March 2013. Incidentally, a Pakistani, Homi Kharas, is the lead author and Executive Secretary of the High-level Panel to advise on the global development agenda beyond 2015. Kharas is responsible for compiling the report of the High-Level Panel, which has been tasked with providing recommendations on a global post-2015 agenda. Kharas holds a PhD in economics from Harvard University and has 26 years of experience with the World Bank. His most recent co-authored books are ‘After the Spring: Economic Transitions in the Arab World’ and ‘Catalysing Development: A New Vision for Aid.’ Unfortunately, he left Pakistan many years ago.

The writer is an award-winning environmental journalist based in Islamabad, who also covers climate change and health issues. She can be reached at rinasaeed@gmail.com

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.

The PTI claimed that they are the first political party in Pakistan to launch a detailed environment policy, although the PPP’s manifesto during the last elections was based on five E’s – employment, education, energy, environment and equality. Given the PPP’s track record in the last five years, however, those five E’s seem a bit of a joke now. Let’s hope the PTI is more serious about their policies and indeed, with Malik Amin Aslam (who holds an MBA from McGill and a MSc from Oxford and once served as a Minister of State for the Environment and is currently a senior Climate Policy Advisor at the UNDP) unveiling their environment policy they seem to be starting off on the right foot.

Malik Amin Aslam is also a politician from Attock who has joined the PTI in recent years and represents the new breed of technically proficient experts who are joining the party in the hope of “turning slogans into reality”. He began his presentation on a “Green Development Agenda” to a packed hall (mostly PTI members but also media people and environment experts living in Islamabad) by first describing how blessed we are given our vast natural resources. Our dramatically different landscapes from the mountains to the sea support a diversity of animals and plants.

He then went on to describe the unsustainable development path being pursued by the government, which is costing us 6 per cent of our GDP. Then there are the devastating impacts of climate change on a highly vulnerable country (the 2010 and 2011 floods were triggered by climate change) for which the country is unprepared. We need around US $6 to 14 billion a year just to adapt to the effects of climate change. Our population is also growing and we are one of the most urbanising countries in South Asia.

-Photo by author

Although the recent UN Conference on Sustainable Development held in Rio de Janeiro was not much of a success, one thing that came out of the conference is that the future “green economy” is something that every country should define for itself. Pakistan is yet to embark on this journey, although other countries in the region are rapidly turning towards alternative energy and other green solutions. However, as Malik Amin pointed out, Pakistan’s strengths have yet to be harnessed.

Perhaps the country’s greatest strength is its resilience and that gives one hope for the future. In the past few years, the country has faced a devastating earthquake, two cyclones, two mega floods, hundreds of thousands of Internally Displaced Persons from conflicts and still somehow coped. “We rank amongst the top five countries in the world when it comes to philanthropy, giving the most in education and health”, he pointed out. In terms of “innovation efficiency” Pakistan ranks 4th in the world. “That means the country has extreme resilience and ingenuity. All our problems can be reversed we just need to have a ‘can do’ attitude”. Even Goldman Sachs has included Pakistan in the ‘Next 11’, describing our economy as one that is “waiting to happen”. In Malik Amin’s view, the tipping point will come once we make “sustainable choices and deliver change”.

Certainly, the country has to shift away from the ‘Business As Usual’ growth trajectory and pursue sustainable growth. “We have to balance the needs of development with nature conservation and provide opportunities for the creation of green jobs”, explained Malik Amin. For that to happen there has to be political ownership of the green agenda. Before the launch of the PTI’s environment policy in the afternoon, the government had launched their comprehensive National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) the same morning. Referring to that launch, Malik Amin pointed out that: “A number of policies and strategies made by the government are not implemented”. He went on to list his “Green Development Agenda” which called for the integration of “true environment costs in economic decision making” and content wise, it was not all that different from the NCCP with calls for saving wetlands, clean air (vehicle standards, mass transit systems), affordable energy (clean coal, nuclear, hydro), efficient buildings (green building codes), and energy conservation (smart grids, solar power).

In the agricultural sector, he called for producing more with less water use, the introduction of rainwater harvesting and solar powered water pumping, along with a return to more organic farming with reduced pesticide use through integrated pest management and better crop varieties. He also called for responsive land use planning (by controlling urban encroachments) and better waste management (by developing integrated waste management in all the cities and a universal ban on plastic bags). In forestry, he called for the doubling of the forest cover and the need to tackle the timber mafia in the country. Under biodiversity he called for a detailed inventory and a plan to turn our designated National Parks into properly managed eco-parks.

He also called for environmental awareness in schools (from primary school onwards) and for better environmental governance and more technical experts in the relevant ministries. In fact, he felt that “environmental rights” needed to be included in our Constitution as a basic human right.

-Photo by author.

“What we need is a new, alternate economy providing clean air, clean water and green jobs… it is a win-win proposition. The financing is mostly incremental and can come from public-private partnerships” was his concluding remarks before Imran Khan came onto the podium to talk about how much environmental destruction he had witnessed in the country over the years. “Allah has given us so much, but we are destroying it all for our future generations,” stated Imran Khan. He reminded the audience that before entering politics, he had traveled all over the country to write two travel books, so he has seen for himself the beauty of places like the Deosai Plateau and the high mountain region. “Our Northern Areas are more beautiful than Switzerland – but they have the discipline and the laws and we don’t … but we can fix our problems if we have rule of law”. In Imran Khan’s view, our air and water can be cleaned and reforestation can take place if there is good governance.

Given the prevailing gloom hanging over the country, it is good to hear such positive words and learn from experts like Malik Amin who have a ‘can do’ attitude. It is also heartening to see a political party give such importance to the environment with a well thought out green agenda – let’s hope they are given a chance to implement it some day.

The writer is an award-winning environmental journalist based in Islamabad, who also covers climate change and health issues. She can be reached at rinasaeed@gmail.com

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.

The Task Force’s recommendations gave birth to the National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) that was finally launched three years later in Islamabad by the UNDP and the federal Ministry of Climate Change in an official ceremony held today. Since July 2011, the UN’s One Joint Programme on Environment has funded the long and expensive process leading to the launch of the NCCP, including consultations with all the provincial governments. This was necessary, given the post 18th amendment scenario in which powers have been devolved to the provincial governments.

The NCCP itself was delayed by devolution and although the Ministry of Environment had prepared the policy back in 2011, it took almost a year to be presented to the federal cabinet (the ministry itself was devolved in June 2011 and reconstituted as the Ministry of Climate Change in 2012). The NCCP was approved in principle by Pakistan’s cabinet in March 2012, but it was only ratified in September 2012 and officially launched in February 2013. In the mean time, Pakistan was hit by another round of disastrous flooding in the summer of 2011 and today the country ranks in the top 10 list of the most vulnerable countries in the world when it comes to suffering from the impacts of climate change.

Clearly, the time for talking is long past and while one is grateful that the NCCP has finally been approved by the government and launched as an official policy document, questions remain about its implementation. “It is good that consultations were held with all the provinces and while I agree with all the policy recommendations (except for nuclear power), what we have today is a framework document, not an action plan”, explains Shafqat Kakakhel, a former UN Environment Programme official and a member of the original Task Force on Climate Change. “What we need is implementation”.

The NCCP has around 120 recommendations focusing both on adaptation and mitigation, relating to key sectors like water, agriculture and livestock, forestry and biodiversity, disaster preparedness, mountain ecosystems, human health, energy, transport etc. However, it is still not a substitute for concrete actions and programmes. “I would have liked to see fewer actions, properly budgeted and time bound, spelling out how much money the government will spend and the resources needed. In fact, where will the resources for implementation come from?” asks Kakakhel.

The issue of climate finance is extremely relevant, given the global financial crisis and the fact that rich countries are reluctant to give money to poor countries for climate change. The global Green Climate Fund, a mechanism to transfer money from the developed to the developing world, in order to assist developing countries in adaptation and mitigation practices to counter climate change, currently faces a bleak future. Rich countries have shied away from giving even the 30 billion US dollars they promised by the end of 2012 (they had promised to provide $100 billion each year by 2020 to developing nations). Their poor track record in meeting their climate finance pledges is not giving us much hope.

The NCCP also envisages the setting up of a National Climate Change Fund under the Planning Commission or the Finance Division, but again there are no particulars about where the money will be coming from, except some vague references to Public Sector Development funding. Without proper funding, the NCCP might meet the same fate as dozens of other good-intentioned policy documents prepared by successive governments and are now gathering dust.

The goal of the policy is to “ensure that climate change is mainstreamed in the economically and socially vulnerable sectors of the country” according to Director General Environment, Javed Ali Khan. Pakistan is to be showcased as a “climate resilient country”. For that to be realised, much more has to happen on the ground and soon before another cycle of monsoon rains hit us this coming summer. For now, the NCCP, according to Kakakhel, “remains a wish list”.

The government in its defense says that an action plan is being made that will include short-term actions (for the next 2 years), medium-term actions (in 10 years) and long-term actions (in 20 years). According to Dr Qamar-uz-Zaman, currently vice-president of the World Meteorological Organisation (from Asia) who authored the NCCP and is now working on the action plan, “The focus will be on the adaptation to climate change in the water sector, agriculture, mountain areas and disaster reduction. There will be mitigation measures as well – how to reduce emissions from energy production and forests”. Ultimately, he says, the NCCP has to be implemented by the provinces – the federal government will only be coordinating on climate change with the provinces and the international donors. The provinces will have to develop their own plans and projects and the Ministry of Climate Change will assist them.

Under the action plan currently being finalised, the provincial capacity is to be increased to deal with issues such as water, disaster management and disaster risk reduction. It is to be a bottom-up, coordinated effort in keeping with the spirit of the 18th Amendment. However, in Kakakhel’s view, “I would have liked to see an apex body of highly qualified experts at the national level overseeing what needs to be done at both the federal and provincial levels. The body would be capable of handling all the multifaceted activities”. The NCCP does envision the setting up of a National Climate Change Policy Implementation Committee but it is to be staffed with bureaucrats while the need of the hour is for technocrats. Fortunately, Pakistan has a number of experienced climate change experts, some working internationally, and the government should take advantage of their expertise.

The writer is an award-winning environmental journalist based in Islamabad, who also covers climate change and health issues. She can be reached at rinasaeed@gmail.com

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.

The world is not in a good shape at the moment – food prices are rising, fresh water is depleting, energy prices are soaring, biodiversity is dying out, intense storms are damaging towns and cities, while floods and droughts are threatening the livelihoods of millions. Clearly, climate change is playing a major role in taking its toll on human populations, just as the scientists had predicted it would. And the rate of change is accelerating. That means the chance of keeping global temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century is getting slimmer. Scientists say that if the earth warms more than 2 degrees then we will not be able to avoid runaway climate change that will be catastrophic. In Pakistan, climate change is not a future prediction but a present reality with devastating consequences given the extensive flooding that is beginning to occur annually during the monsoon season. For the past two years, Pakistan has topped the list of the Global Climate Risk Index produced by Germanwatch, a non-governmental organisation that works on global equity issues.

In 2010, Pakistan was listed as the number one country in the world affected by climate related disasters; in 2011 it was ranked as number three.

The United Nations-led negotiations on a new global agreement to curb climate change have stalled after the massive momentum that was built up just before the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit held in 2009. The summit proved to be a major disappointment and soon after the week the Copenhagen Accord was signed, the urgency was gone from the talks. There is a worldwide recession at the moment and affluent countries, especially the US, don’t want to take any actions that they think will slow down their economies further. “I see multilateralism going nowhere,” remarked Barbara Unmuessig, the President of the Heinrich Boll Stiftung (HBS), a German green political foundation. Barbara, who has been involved with environmental issues for more than 20 years, was visiting Pakistan recently. “We need to rethink our strategy at the local and national level, and put pressure on our politicians to go in the right direction”. She gave the example of how German citizens put pressure on their political leadership to get rid of nuclear power and substitute it with renewable energy. Today Germany, which is a highly industrialised country, has an extensive renewable energy system. Her advice to Pakistan, especially given its current energy crisis: “What are the solutions? Try to build your own green economy. In such a large country you can build your own renewable energy industry”.

Green economy is the new buzzword that is replacing “sustainable development” in the global arena. The concept of the green economy was first created in 2008 to get governments to spend money on the environment and in 2009 it was presented by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), as a way forward in response to the global financial crisis. The idea behind it was to shift investments away from business as usual to green activities making economic sense. Scientists have been calling for a major shift to clean energy technologies and energy efficiency in order to curb carbon emissions causing climate change. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in their special report on renewable energy sources and climate change mitigation called for nations around the globe to invest heavily in renewable energy to bring down prices and make it more affordable to everyone.

Many experts had pinned high hopes on last year’s UN Conference on Sustainable Development held in Rio de Janeiro, which had a theme of “green economy”. The Rio+20 conference (it had been 20 years since the last Earth Summit was held in Rio) failed to deliver anything substantive, however. Barbara had warned in a paper published just before the Rio conference, “Rio+20 must be more than just a repetition of previous international conferences – it must offer a true breakthrough to a social, just, low-carbon and resource efficient world”. Unfortunately, there was no sincere political will, either in the North or the South to do this and today the “business as usual, the ‘brown’ resource intensive development path, prevails”. Hence, Barbara questions whether the green economy is “the new magic bullet”? In her view, “UNEP’s green economy concept contains nothing that could revolutionise the (global) economy”.

Perhaps the solution is that: “We don’t have to follow big business, we can implement good solutions along with less consumption of resources”. She is clear that the green economy must benefit people and not big businesses and that wasteful consumption patterns and lifestyles (especially in the North) must change. “We need to rethink development to preserve nature, feed people and make lives better”. She is clear, however, that it is politics that has to set the standards, limits and goals. We urgently need institutions and decision makers who can make planet Earth deliver for the future.

The writer is an award-winning environmental journalist based in Islamabad, who also covers climate change and health issues. She can be reached at rinasaeed@gmail.com

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.

By now I was outside and looking at the slowly moving beacon in the darkening sky. “That is the International Space Station or ISS, it just made a routine pass over Karachi and there are people aboard it”.

“Such a bright object can’t be a satellite,” he exclaimed. I told him it was in fact the largest satellite ever put in Earth’s orbit, it gets markedly brighter during certain passes and the astronauts in it have internet. They have also photographed Karachi at night from up there. “When’s the next pass?!”

Karachi photographed from the ISS on 9th Dec 2012 using a 180mm lens. –Photo Credit: ESA

I wasn’t surprised at my friend’s reaction because I’ve witnessed similar responses from other people. Many don’t realise that some very dazzling sights can be seen in the sky. The media has been abuzz these days with news of an asteroid almost half as big as a football field that passed uncomfortably close to Earth last Friday at 7.82 kilometers per second. Although the space rock, which was discovered last February and dubbed 2012 DA14, posed no risk of collision with Earth, it has passed closer than the multitudes of communication and navigation satellites circling Earth and was easy to see as a briskly moving dot using binoculars throughout Pakistan. Skywatching buffs in Karachi and other cities got together around the midnight of 15th Feb ‘13 to watch and photograph the object.

The asteroid that buzzed past Earth on Friday night compared to the ISS, an American football field and the Boeing 747. -Illustration credit: Karl Tate

It is amazing what you can see even without binoculars or a telescope if you gaze skywards at the right time. Last February, I was flying to Jeddah late at night seated next to a window in a delayed flight of a PIA 747. I was awed by the sight of the lit cities and towns that drifted below us. I could almost feel as if I was orbiting the Earth in the ISS. Then I put a pillow behind my head to shield the window glass from reflecting the cabin lights. Several minutes passed, and lo and behold, I could see the misty band of our home galaxy, the Milky Way! I have seen it several times during our rutjugas – skywatching and sight-seeing trips to Balochistan and Sindh – but I found it hard to believe I should see it on my first trans-country flight.

The author’s silhouette seen against the Milky Way from the Hingol National Park, Balochistan -Photo by Hanif Bhatti

A galaxy is basically a city of billions of stars. Galaxies also have numerous massive clouds of dust just the way human cities have lots of dirt and dust. And just like human cities are surrounded by suburbs, galaxies have suburbs which are home to smaller populations of stars.

The Hercules Globular Cluster, a suburb of our galaxy, photographed through a telescope from the Cholistan Desert, central Pakistan. -Photo by Saad Abbasi

From the airplane window, I was also admiring the king of globular clusters, Omega Centauri, with my unaided eyes. And then the most memorable thing happened – a bright meteor streaked across the sky! How many frequent travelers can claim having seen a meteor while flying at 40’000ft? Not many, I guess, and perhaps the only experience that beats this is watching a meteor from space itself. That is just what astronaut Ron Garan did from the International Space Station in August 2011:

Of course, a bright meteor is a jaw-dropping sight even for us Earth-bound urban folks. Paola-Castillowas stuck in a jam on Oct. 17, 2012 in Northern California when she, instead of honking the horn, glanced skywards and saw a blazing meteor. She took this photo using her cellphone while the meteor fragmented during its fiery passage through the Earth’s atmosphere. The next time you’re in a traffic jam, try looking at the sky if it is clear.

It doesn’t even have to be night for a bright meteor to entrance you. On the Sunday morning of 22nd April 2012, a bright ball of light traveling east to west was seen over the skies of central and northern California. Lisa Warren shot it from Reno, Nevada:

What if the sky is partly cloudy? Don’t despair. Remember the wry Smiley Face that appeared in the western sky on the partly overcast evening of 1st Dec 2008? It was the crescent Moon and the planets Venus and Jupiter very close together in the sky, peeking through the clouds every now and then.

The crescent Moon, Venus and Jupiter on 1st Dec 2008 from Nazimabad, Karachi – Photo by Ramiz Qureshi

Then of course there was Pakistan’s flag – or as the media put it, the initials of two leading politicians – in the sky in June 2007 when the planet Venus was occulted or hidden behind the Moon. Many likened the pre-occultation spectacle to the Urdu alphabet “noon” and the post-occultation orientation to the Urdu “bay”. Oh boy.

Venus several minutes before being occulted by the Moon on 18th June 2007. -Photo by Khalid Marwat

It’s surprising how many people including several astronomy enthusiasts missed the twice-a-lifetime transit of Venus last June just because they did not look skywards at the right moment. A number of Karachiites mistook the thick haze that morning for thin clouds, and since it was a working day, did not look again. When the sun did become visible about half an hour after sunrise, it was so dim that you had to search hard for it. So its blindingly bright disk was shielded to a level well below that which can damage eyesight and an idyllic glance showed Venus as a speck on the sun to anyone with keen sight. The next transit of Venus does not happen until December 2117.

Venus idling across the sun’s face. -Photo by author

Sunsets and sunrises are often awe-inspiring sights even, but the sunrise of 22nd July 2009 from Karachi was different. The sun that morning had risen partially eclipsed by the Moon.

The sun about 15 minutes after rising on 22nd July 2009 in Karachi. -Photo by author

Mention the word “comet” to someone and they’ll more likely than not say “Halley’s comet?” Few know there are other comets, although rare, which can become much brighter. One March evening in 1997, I found a twin-tailed comet over the western horizon from our Karachi apartment. I fondly remember watching it with my mother over the next several evenings and wondering why it had two tails. Even though this comet hung in the post-dusk sky for nearly two months and still holds the record for the comet with the longest duration of visibility without optical aid, it was missed by the general urban populace of Pakistan. It has been 16 years since this sensational comet Hale-Bopp appeared and the northern hemisphere is yet to see a similarly bright comet.

Comet Hale-Bopp in April 1997. –Photo by John Goldsmith

The talk of naked eye curiosities in the sky would naturally be incomplete if we do not mention the crescent Moon. As an avid sky watching enthusiast, I can testify that the official ruwiyat in our country is correct 95 per cent of the times. If the majority of our people looked for the crescent Moon at the start of every month instead of just for Meethi Eid, the dilemma of multiple Eids that we face every year would likely not have been plaguing us. But that is the topic for another blog.

The exquisitely slender crescent of 01/05/1433 AH and the planet Jupiter from Karachi. -Photo by author

The writer is an engineer by profession. He has been into skywatching since age 10, is an active member of local astronomy clubs and loves doing outreach sessions and workshops about practical astronomy. He can be reached at zainahm@gmail.com

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.

Credit: Creative Commons.

The event is being organised by “The Talent Broker International (TBI)” of Pakistan and their international partners “Utrish Dolphinarium” from Russia. Even before its arrival, the show has attracted the criticism and concern from conservation groups and segments of the society.

Apprehension against such activities is an international phenomenon and often supported by views of experts. The “Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society” (WDCS), which “is the leading global charity dedicated to the conservation and welfare of all whales and dolphins” states in a publication titled “Introduction to Captivity”:

“Once confined, dolphins…

-    Are separated from their natural habitat and enclosed in a totally alien environment.
-    Have to undergo medication and fertility control.
-    Have to put up with an artificial diet, unusual noise, strange odours and the proximity of people and other unfamiliar captive animals.
-    No longer have free will to choose social bonds.
-    May suffer aggression from other pool mates more dominant than them.
-    Are sometimes kept on their own (some in hotel swimming pools), e.g. four orcas are currently held in captivity on their own.
-    Suffer from stress, reduced life expectancy and breeding problems.
-    The Marine Mammal Inventory Report, maintained by the US government, lists a variety of causes of death including drowning, ingestion of foreign objects and aggression from pool mates.

The trouble with tanks:
-    Any tank is small and cramped compared to the open ocean.
-    Chemically-treated water effects dolphins’ sensitive skin, causing ulcers and skin lesions.
-    Chemically-treated water means no live fish or plants can be placed inside, leaving the tank bare and largely featureless, with no mental stimulation.
-    Many countries do not have minimum standards for housing captive dolphins.”

We in Pakistan are amongst those countries mentioned in the last point i.e., we do not have any minimum standards that need to be adhered to for keeping captive marine mammals. Hence, the question of a violation of national code does not arise.

The “Alliance for Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums” is “an international association representing marine life parks, aquariums, zoos, research facilities, and professional organisations”. They issue standards and guidelines for their members around the world, on the acquisition, disposition, training, care, environment and other aspects of establishing and running a marine mammal park or aquarium. Their standards and guidelines also include aspects conducive for awareness, education and conservation activities. Perhaps we can adopt their standards and guidelines in a customised manner under the regulatory oversight of the relevant Wildlife Departments.

Interestingly, the opportunity of a dolphin show visiting the country could also be utilised for initiating an academic or research program in liaison with local universities or to allow internship opportunities for local researchers and students.

US Navy photo by Pierre G. Georges

Sometimes, captive animals are used for far more serious purposes than mere entertainment. Dating back from the times when canaries were kept in coal mines to raise alarm, certain tasks have been assigned to animals for greater efficiency and safety. Testing of pharmaceuticals during research and development on various animals, and chimpanzees being launched into space, prior to manned missions are modern examples of how animals have been able to reduce risk exposure to humans and in some cases have even been able to save scores of lives.

Similarly, the use of sniffer dogs has been instrumental in counter terrorism and search and rescue missions. K-9 units across the globe are a testimony to their effectiveness. However, dogs cannot be used for underwater counter-terrorism or search and rescue tasks. This is where Marine mammals including dolphins come in.

US Navy photo by Photographer Brien Aho

For decades, the US Navy’s Marine Mammal Program has trained and deployed marine mammals for important tasks such as detection of explosive mines, etc. The program has contributed greatly to scientific research on the animals. Amazingly, its website claims that, “these animals are released almost daily untethered into the open ocean, and since the program began, only a few animals have not returned.”

US Navy photo by Photographer Brien Aho

Although, reportedly a phase-out of the program will start from 2017, and the animals will gradually be replaced by robots! However, Pakistan can still benefit from a marine mammal initiative for usage by the Navy, customs, coast guards and other government organisations working in coastal areas. Imagine, a pod of Dolphins from Pakistan’s Marine Mammal program alerting Pakistani fishermen if they get too close to the border! We do have ample opportunity to initiate such a program, especially considering the second “development” discussed below.

The second news item I mentioned at the beginning was that thousands of dolphins were reported off the coast of Gawadar in December 2012.

Photo Credit: Mekyle Khan

This is not “news” for anyone who frequently visits the deeper Pakistani waters for his professional or recreational activities. As our navy personnel, mercantile sailors, oceanographers and fishermen will testify, Pakistani waters are home to a wide range of Cetaceans including several species of dolphins that often display inquisitive and playful behavior whenever a human vessel is nearby. One can often find them riding the bow waves created by the larger vessels and jumping into the air during the act. They are cheerful and noisy at such times, almost appearing to be having fun – surfing Cetacean style.

US Navy photo by Mark Sashegyi

US Navy photo by Erik Reynolds

James Cameron was probably spot-on in his depiction of this behavior by Atlantic dolphins, in a scene in “Titanic” the 1997 blockbuster. However, any aspiring observer should be clear that although dolphins and even whales have been reported as near to Karachi as Churna Island, it does not constitute “deeper Pakistani waters”.

For me, it was during 2008, that keeping my senses open for any wildlife related whiff, I came to learn that Dolphins (other than Indus Blind Dolphins) lived in Pakistani seas and that 12 species of Cetaceans (the group to which Whales and Dolphins belong) were found in Pakistani seas.

By then, I had already observed crocodiles, turtles, cobras, peacocks and other animals in the Pakistani wilderness. Hence at once, I wanted to see the dolphins and add them to my list of boasts.

As luck would have it, I have since then, observed wild dolphins in Pakistani waters on various occasions and have also organised a few Dolphin Safaris with ample opportunities for the participants to shoot at will – albeit with a camera, only. The occasions produced not the typical “Flipper”-ish displays we see in movies but wild behavior with some animals avoiding close proximity while others displaying curiosity. On occasions, there were pods of female dolphins with their young in tow, spraying water from their little blowholes.

On a personal note, having watched a specie display its natural behavior is a kind of a spoiler for life. It eliminates any charm in observing captive specimens. In fact, in the case of dolphins, the idea of observing unnatural acts being performed by captive dolphins for human entertainment has been borderline disturbing. Admittedly, the curiosity that lead to my encounters in the wild might not have originated, had it not been for trips to the local zoo, videos of circuses and dolphinariums, in the first place.

The writer works for a bank and is interested in the outdoors, wildlife and science. Currently he is seeking transfer to a branch either in the Australian outback or the Himalayas! He can be reached at vagabonds.odyssey@gmail.com

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.