Gulf hunts fuel falcon trafficking surge in Pakistan
This is a report on Falcon Trafficking in Pakistan. As a teenager Mohammad Rafiq picked up how to trap falcons and that ended up becoming his way to make money through illegal trade. He is 32 now and lives along the coast in Pakistan. He says he has pulled in quite a bit by handing over birds including some endangered ones to people who move them to rich buyers in the Gulf. Local dealers come around regularly to pick up what trappers have caught and one bird can bring in tens of thousands on the black market.
Pakistan still supplies a lot of these falcons even though poaching is banned. Numbers from WWF Pakistan put it around 700 smuggled out last year mostly through bigger criminal groups. The birds matter a lot over in the Gulf states where falconry has been around for a long time and wild caught ones are wanted for hunting trips.
It seems each winter some wealthy hunters from there come to Pakistan with permits to go after houbara bustards using the falcons. Those trips have ties to how Pakistan deals with Gulf countries and the money they send over the years. Some people want tighter rules on moving falcons out so the wild ones do not get hit so hard.
بازوں کی مانگ میں اضافے سے بڑھتی ہوئی سمگلنگ۔۔۔۔ بازوں کی سمگلنگ کے حوالے سے ڈان نیوز خصوصی رپورٹ
بازوں کی مانگ میں اضافے سے بڑھتی ہوئی سمگلنگ۔۔۔۔ ڈان نیوز خصوصی رپورٹ
