Every year the Pakistani Foreign Ministry issues license to the royals from the Gulf and their wealthy friends to hunt vulnerable Asian houbara bustard.
- Vast swathes of land in Pakistan are allocated in blocks to these dignitaries from the UAE, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries to hunt down the bird.
- The Arab royals hunt the bird as a sport and also because its meat is believed to be an aphrodisiac.
- The practice was also followed in India until the 1970s.
- The objective behind Pakistani move is to strengthen the country’s diplomatic relations with Gulf countries.
- Pakistan’s Supreme Court had imposed a blanket ban on the killing of the houbara bustard in 2015. The order was later reversed.
- The Asian houbara bustard is a bird native to Central Asia that migrates to the Indian subcontinent, including Pakistan, during winter months. It is similar to the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard, which is native to India.
- According to the International Fund for Houbara Conservation (IFHC), roughly 33,000 Asian houbara bustards and over 22,000 of the North African houbara bustards remain today.
(Indian Express)
