About 2,000 species of birds have become extinct as victims of the Saudi crown prince's hunt

The Dhaka Times Desk The prince of Saudi Arabia hunted about 2,000 of these endangered birds. Some of them are on the verge of collapse. The poaching happened in a safari park in Pakistan.

Prince Fahad bin Sultan Abdulaziz Al Saud hunted about 1977 birds. Many of which are prohibited from hunting under international animal protection laws. Also, many of these birds are protected under the International Convention for the Conservation of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. But in the meantime, the Saudi Prince hunted birds in violation of this international law. According to leading Pakistani newspaper Dawn, the remaining 123 wild animals were hunted by the local representative of the Saudi prince. As a result of which a total of 2100 animals died in this hunting cycle. Every year a number of migratory birds migrate from Central Asia to the deserts of Pakistan. At that time, a section of Pakistan's wealthy and Arab royal families traveled to this desert region of Pakistan for bird hunting. The time of poaching began in Pakistan. The meat of the bird is very expensive and is a delicacy for the Arabian royals. Moreover, the Arabian royals believed that it had many medicinal properties and that eating the bird's flesh increased youth.

This year the annual hunting season begins in late February, the Lahore High Court of Pakistan has banned bird hunting at this time of the year. But still bird hunting is going on despite this ban. Moreover, according to Pakistani law, poaching of endangered birds is punishable by law. India has also enacted legislation banning the hunting of extinct animals under this Act. India's strict enforcement of these laws has reduced wildlife poaching to a large extent. Moreover, Bollywood superstar Salman Khan had to pay a huge fine last year for hunting wild deer. But the interesting thing is that every year the Indian government allows the Arab nobility to hunt animals in their country. This hunting permit is given for hunting 100 wild animals in a specific area. However, there have been reports against the Saudi prince for poaching wild animals in protected areas. He is also accused of poaching more than 100 animals at a safari park in Pakistan.

The charge sheet did not mention any punishment against him. Animal conservation experts say that if the birds are hunted freely, many of their species will disappear from the world within the next 50 years. The wildlife columnist of the famous Guardian newspaper said, “Animal conservation laws in different countries around the world are very strong on local people. But due to lack of regular monitoring of poachers it is not implemented on time. On top of that, some species have been lost today due to the political considerations of noble people from different parts of the world to allow free hunting of birds. Although those nobles are given certain limits on hunting, they often hunt beyond those limits. Tasnim Aslam, Secretary of Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said, "It has been a tradition for Arab nobles to come to Pakistan to hunt birds for ages." He also said, "Even ten years ago, there was not much public awareness about this issue, but now we see many protesting against it".

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, the current number of birds in the world is about 110,000 but it is decreasing at a rate of about 20 percent every year due to hunting alone. On the contrary, if public awareness is not raised now, many species will become extinct.

Reference: The Huffington Post