Sindh Wildlife Department blamed for deaths of 100 turtles

KARACHI: Around 100 turtles died during transportation from Karachi to Sukkur of a consignment that Sindh Wildlife official confiscated from Karachi last week and later taken to northern Sindh to release into their habitat, Daily Times learnt on Thursday.

On last Friday, officials of Sindh Wildlife Department along police raided a house Defense Housing Authority (DHA) Karachi and seized huge consignment of 780 endangered freshwater black pond turtles. Later, these turtles were carried to Sukkur to release them into the freshwater bodies.

Some video footages that an organization working for the animal rights, the Pakistan Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) acquired clearly shows that how wildlife officials treated the endangered turtles in inhumane manner. These turtles were stuffed in polypropylene sacks piled upon each other under the hot sun for the long journey. Wildlife Department used open trucks to transport the consignment of the turtles from Karachi to Sukkur and also on the site of release, Sindh Wildlife Department staff dragging the turtles out of the truck and letting them fall onto the ground, while others had a field day playing footsie with them.

Also the staff shown literally throwing the animals into the water and many of those animals which died in the way and their corpses were floating over the water.

Mahera Omar, Co-founder and director of Pakistan Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) told Daily Times that tying the turtles into polypropylene sacks was inhumane and many of the turtles died due to suffocation as they could not breathe through the bags. “By the time they arrived on location, the turtles had ripped apart the plastic bags in an attempt to get fresh air. A few of them suffocated during the trip as dead turtles were also released into the lake on arrival,” she said.

Mahera Omar alleged that Sindh Wildlife Department ignored the international turtles release protocols. “Officials must follow the international turtles release protocols while releasing such a huge consignment,” she said, adding that turtles should be allowed to go into the water on their own, and not forced and pushed.

However, Provincial Conservator, Sindh Wildlife Department, Saeed Baloch denied of deaths of 70 turtles and claimed that the international turtles release protocols were followed during the transportation and release of the turtles.

“WE had no idea for how long these turtles were kept in the house from where we seized the consignment and most of the turtles were already in worst conditions, therefore we wanted to release the as soon as possible,” Baloch told Daily Times. He said when wildlife official raided the house; these turtles were kept in the plastic bags. “We didn’t want to waste the time, so we took the endangered turtles immediately to their natural habitat,” he said.

Pakistan Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) also alleged that the turtles were not released exactly to their natural habitat.

“The arrested convicts should’ve been interrogated to find out the exact sites from where these turtles were captured so that they could be released along those sites,” said Mahera Omar, adding that turtle release site was not scientifically selected and all the turtles were released in the same area. “We fear the competition for food and shelter among the turtles will result in heavy mortality, as fishing season
has started in the same area where turtles have been released and these turtles will face heavy deaths because of the fishing nets,” said Mahera, requesting to impose Section 144 against fishing in the release site
for at least this season.

Future release sites of confiscated turtles should be earmarked and not auctioned for fishing, mining or any other human activities.

It was also important to find out how long the turtles had been in captivity, as the longer the captive period, the more important the quarantine period. Several of the turtles died after confiscation, and if they had any disease they would’ve taken it back to the wild.