Decades ago in 1975, the villagers of Kot Behlan in the district of Sheikhupura were surprised to see a white crow flying the village skies. They hadn’t seen anything but the grey-necked crow commonly seen in Pakistan.

“This white crow was beyond our imagination,” recalls Iqbal Gill, a resident of the Kot Behlan village. “It flew with the house crows, and sounded like them too, but its colour was totally the opposite.

The white crow soon acquired celebrity status and became the talk of the town. While it settled in with the village house crows, people would often pause to watch it in particular. On rainy days, women happily fed him crumbs when he swooped into their courtyards; neighbours would pause to watch this scene.

The white crow made a nest in one of the trees in the village. With time, the crow became part of the villagers’ everyday life.

The death of a rare Albino crow, living among villagers in Kot Behlan in Sindh, offers many lessons about our growing disregard for nature

One day, a pest control aircraft appeared, and sprayed pesticide on the crops. Unfortunately, this little crow came in the aircraft’s range. Some children playing nearby saw the white crow fall to the ground. They ran over to see if it were injured. They tried to revive it by pouring water in its mouth, but their efforts were in vain. It had died.

All the villagers mourned the loss of their celebrity crow. It still holds a special place in the hearts of those who remember it.

What the villagers of Kot Behlan did not know then was that their celebrity bird was the rare Albino crow. Albinism is a genetic mutation that prevents the production of melanin in the body.

The death of this unique crow is an example of how attempts at pest control through aerial sprays or other means kills numerous birds and other creatures on the ground.

While there are some benefits of using pesticides, there are also drawbacks, such as potential toxicity to humans and animals. This is why pesticide use is opposed by biodiversity experts, as it kills environment-friendly creatures that help in maintaining a fragile ecosystem and the natural web of biodiversity.

“If you tamper with nature, it bounces back,” says Inamullah Khan, former biodiversity expert at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

According to Rafiul Haq, senior ecologist and member of the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM), various studies on the use of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides in farming have revealed a reduction in the egg viability of partridges and other birds that lay eggs on the ground, which has caused a decline in the bird population.

Certain birds, reptiles and fish forage on insects and pests in the agricultural crops and water bodies, thus keeping ecological systems healthy. It is a reminder of how nature weaves a beautiful web of life on earth and how living creatures depend on each other.

History is also replete with lessons about the consequences of manipulating ecology.

One such example is China’s ‘four pest’ campaign in the late 1950s.

An article by biologist Zhou Jianren titled “The Harm of Sparrow and the Way to Eliminate It” argued that a sparrow consumes around two kilogrammes of cereal a year, so it was considered a pest and listed with rats, flies and mosquitoes — the latter three were also blamed for the spread of malaria, typhoid and the plague. The article also noted that around 175 million kilogrammes of crops were destroyed in a year by these pests. The farmers of that time also considered the sparrow a pest.

It is believed Chinese leaders were influenced by this argument and issued instructions to kill these pests. Some studies estimate that one billion sparrows were killed in this campaign. However, in the absence of sparrows, the number of natural predators, such as the locust and other insects, swelled and swarmed the country, leading to an ecological disaster which emerged due to deforestation and the use of pesticides.

This ecological imbalance is believed to have led to the famine in China. After realising the scope of the ecological disaster, some Chinese scientists called for a redressal of the issue. The government then imported 250,000 sparrows from the then Soviet Union to replenish the dwindling sparrow population.

The damage in biodiversity web manifests through different calamities. Today, Pakistan faces a difficult time as it deals with the aftermath of the heaviest floods in 100 years. One third of the country’s area is submerged in stagnant water, which has become a breeding ground for mosquitoes in unprecedented numbers. There are already reports of dengue- and malaria-related cases and hundreds of deaths so far, which may go up over time.

The natural way of protecting crops from insects is to increase other elements of biodiversity, such as birds, dragonflies, frogs, tadpoles, toads and fish. “A dragonfly is a natural predator for mosquitoes and eats around 100 mosquitoes per day,” says Ashiq Ahmed Khan, a renowned biodiversity expert who received the prestigious Kenton R. Miller Award in 2016.

Water run-off from agriculture fields with pesticides contaminates water bodies, harms its users, and kills environment-friendly creatures that keep water bodies clean from pests and impurities. While thinking of enhancing crop production, farmers forget that birds not only eat the insects in crops but also add beauty to the environment.

In 2010, when heavy floods had inundated Pakistan, millions of mosquitos appeared but nature intervened and, in addition to the birds, spiders served as predators to mitigate the situation. Spiders spun their webs on trees and entire trees were turned into cobwebs. It was a nature-based solution to the aftermath of a natural calamity. It is also how ecosystems secure all species and maintain balance between them.

As custodians of this Earth, people must exercise the option of using nature-based solutions to enhance the productivity and maintain the safety of wildlife and nature. Those who invest in nature — whether they live in Kot Behlan or a mega city — will be amply compensated.

The writer is a member of the IUCN Commission on Education and Communication

Published in Dawn, EOS, October 30th, 2022

The print version of this article incorrectly stated Sheikhupura was in Sindh. The error is regretted.