Neglected Lalazar Safari Park
By Air Marshal (Retd.) Ayaz Ahmed Khan
Mallach House Nathiagali
The huge bill board of Lalazar Safari Park on Nathiagali-Abbottabad Road with leopards, pheasants and white horses is a piece of art. It attracts tourists to the park located on the Lalazar mountain top at a height of nine thousand feet. You climb the winding track which passes through Pine, Fir and Deodar forest, on foot or on a horse. It takes about twenty-five minutes to reach the Park. Benches are suitably located for rest on the way. A board near the entry gate tells you that the Park is administered by the Pakhtunkhaw Wild Life Department, and warns the visitor not to feed the animals and the birds, and not to trash the place.
During my visit on Friday July 27, 2012, the zookeeper was absent. An eight-year-old kid at the gate had the entry tickets, but visitors were entering without the Rs 15 ticket. The kid said that his father the only Chowkidar had gone for Friday prayers. He did not turn up during the three hours of my visit.
The Lalazar Safari Park/Zoo is well designed, but is in a state of neglect. It has two common (Galliat) leopards kept inside a large compound with high barbed wire around. This pair is healthy and playful. The height of the place and the cool weather are ideal for Galiat leopards, and more could be kept. Leopards are becoming extinct, and could survive in well-managed parks
Man has invaded their habitat and only fifty are left in the Galiat mountains. The leopards feed on monkeys, dogs, goats, rabbits and poultry. Leopards are killed every year when they enter villages in search of food. In 2007, two leopards in the Galliat forests attacked twelve persons, and killed seven women and girls. The provincial forest minister and the NWFP Wild Life Department urged the people to kill leopards at sight, and invited sharp shooters from Lahore to decimate them. In the killing spree that followed about fifteen leopards were killed and five trapped, caged and sent to Karachi, Lahore and Margazar Zoo in Islamabad. In these zoos leopards confined in small cages routinely die from heat during summer. To ensure the survival of the zoo confined leopards, it would be better to shift them to the Lalazar Safari Park from March 15 to November 15. Last year I saw hooligans stoning the leopards. Park security must stop such vandalism.
There was a snow leopard in a cage. It was presented by a VIP, who keeps big cats as pets. Snow leopards live at heights of around 15,000 feet. This lone animal should be released to enable it to survive in one of the National Parks in the Korakorum mountains.
The six monkeys and the five pheasants in the Lalazar Safari Park are famished and starving. There is no arrangement to feed them. These pheasants must be regularly fed, or shifted to the Dudial Pheasantry near Mansera on the KKH Highway. Trained zoo-keepers are needed to take care of the few caged animals and birds.
Lalazar Safari Park is the only zoo in the Pakhtunkhaw province, but is in a state of neglect. Markhors from Baltistan, and black bears from the Neelam Valley in Azad Kashmir, could be added attractions. If properly managed Lalazar Park could be turned into the most beautiful safari park in the country. But it needs to be funded, staffed by trained zoo-keepers and efficiently administered by responsible officials.
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