KOHAT: The climate change and drying wetlands has shrunk the number of migratory Siberian birds to Kohat to around 6,000 from 60,000 per year.

Divisional wildlife officer, Kohat, Samad Wazir told this correspondent on Monday that many species of native birds were also disappearing due to change in weather as they could not bear the harsh summers amid water scarcity.

Only small flocks of migratory birds had starting arriving in the Kohat’s four wetlands daily, he said, adding 30 to 40 waterfowls were arriving daily in the major wetlands of Tanda Dam, Dhoda, Dharwazai, Ghurzandi and Darmalak and some other lakes and streams compared to their high numbers in the past.

Mr Wazir said climate change, industrialisation, emission of sulphur dioxide from oil and gas wells and cutting of forests had led to a drop in migration of birds, which only made stopovers in Kohat while on their way to Iran and Central Asian Republics. He said geese, swans, cranes, mallard ducks, ruddy shelducks, common teal, and shoveller ducks had started arriving here from Siberia, but they were very few in numbers.

Mr Wazir said the migration period would complete in December after which the birds would start their journey back for nesting in January.

The wildlife officer said to discourage indiscriminate hunting of birds the government had raised the hunting licences’ fee from Rs2,000 to Rs3,000 per gun per day. He said the hunting period picked up during November and continued till January. He said they had to cut the hunting bag quantity from 20 to 10 so as to stop killing of migratory birds.

OUTLAWS ARRESTED: The Kohat police arrested 10 proclaimed offenders along with six facilitators, eight drug peddlers and 440 suspects during the strike and strategic operations on Monday.

Similarly, the police arrested 11 persons for firing in the air along with weapons.

The police of all the four circles also recovered a cache of weapons and drugs, including three kalakovs, two repeaters, three rifles, 26 pistols, 1,200 cartridges, 10 kilogrammes of hashish and 320 grams of ice.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2021