The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Wildlife Department on Saturday recovered four wild animals, including a black bear and three monkeys, from a house in the Malakand district, officials said.
Range Officer Malakand Majid Khan told that the KP Wildlife Department raided a house in the district’s Batkhela area where an eight-month-old black bear cub and three baby monkeys, just a few months old, were unlawfully kept. He said one person was arrested during the raid and a case was registered against him under the province’s wildlife laws. Khan added that the animals were kept for the purpose of sale.
The official further stated that the black bear was being shifted to the Peshawar Zoo while the monkeys would be moved to the Malakand Wildlife Safari Park. Under the law, the display and handling of wildlife in the name of awareness by any private person is barred in the province.
According to the Wildlife and Biodiversity (Protection, Preservation, Conservation, and Management) Act, 2015 of the KP government, “All wild animals, free-ranging or captive, tamed or untamed, found within the territorial jurisdiction of the province shall be deemed to be the property of the government”.
“No person shall be in possession of any wild animal or exotic, dead or alive, trophy or meat specified in Second Schedule unless he is in possession of a valid Certificate or Licence,” it notes. In a similar incident last month, 14 monkeys were recovered from a Karachi-bound bus and were later handed over to the management of Karachi Zoological Garden.—INP
