Located adjacent to the border with India, the Musk Deer National Park (MDNP) was declared a protected area by the Government of Azad Jammu and Kashmir in 2007. The objective of designating it as national park was to protect its pristine natural beauty and conserve the important biological resources, particularly the musk deer, brown bear, black bear, snow leopard, common leopard, Kashmir stag and the Himalayan ibex.

The MDNP was also envisioned as an important link in connecting the threatened brown bear population in the Deosai National Park located in the adjacent Gilgit-Baltistan region with those in the Ghamot National Park located in the AJK towards the west of the MDNP. It is therefore designed and expected to play an important role in preserving wildlife movement corridors and consequentially in enriching the gene pools of wildlife in the region that could otherwise be isolated.

According to the AJK Wildlife Act 1975, while large developmental activities are prohibited in a national park, sustainable use of natural resources by local communities is permitted. Thus grazing, wood cutting and extraction of medicinal plants are all permitted within limits. However, the extensive exploitation of medicinal plants by the local communities is now exceeding levels of sustainability!

Illegal harvesting of medicinal plants in a national park is exceeding sustainability levels

There are a large number of medicinal plants found in the MDNP. These include the herbs Trillium Govanianum, locally known as ‘trepatra’ and Aconitum Heterophyllum locally known as ‘patrees’. The trillium species is used for treating gynecological issues and diarrhoea while the Aconitum Heterophyllum is a medicinal herb used in both Chinese medicine and Ayurveda. It has a high conservation importance and is listed as ‘endangered’ in the IUCN Red List due to a severe decline in its population. In India, the population of this endemic herb has declined by almost 70 per cent due to habitat loss and unsustainable collection practices.

Every year in September, the AJK Wildlife Department gives out permits for harvesting these medicinal plants from areas outside the MDNP. However, local communities extract the medicinal plants without any regard for these permits. They remove the plants not just from the National Park but from the Core Zone of the Park — the area strictly protected for biodiversity conservation. This removal or harvesting of the medicinal herbs is done without government approval, using crude, unscientific techniques that damage the plants and affect their growth and survival. Often the plants are extracted as early as June, even before the seeds or roots are mature. This affects the reproductive ability of the plants leading to a population decline in the next generation.

The foremost concern of this unsustainable extraction of medicinal plants is the decline in population of the plants themselves particularly the endangered Aconitum Heterophyllum. In addition, the carpet excavation, in which large areas of land are stripped of plants, causes habitat loss and degradation. The faunal species that depend on these plants are negatively impacted due to loss of habitat as well as a decline in food availability. Moreover, there is an increase in the likelihood of landslides during the rainy season due to vegetation stripping.

Even though this excessive extraction of medicinal plants from the MDNP, particularly the Core Zone is against the rules and regulations of the MDNP, the practice continues unabated. The staff of the AJK Wildlife Department is unable to enforce the park regulations either due to lack of capacity or inadequate number of guards. They claim that harvesting of the medicinal plants is carried out mostly by women and children and, it is not appropriate for male guards to stop or reprimand these women, since this could cause conflict with the local communities. The Himalayan Wildlife Foundation, an NGO is working with the Wildlife Department for environmental protection. However, a more efficient watch and ward system is required to patrol all areas of the national park to ensure that this illegal harvesting of medicinal plants is curtailed. If not, these species of economic and conservation importance could soon become extirpated from the area.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, November 15th, 2015

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