On the sidelines of Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s meeting with his UAE counterpart Sheikh Abdulla bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Wildlife Institute of India signed the MoU for the conservation of the Great Indian Bustard and the Lesser Florican.
The Wildlife Institute of India has signed a MoU with International Fund for Houbara Conservation for the conservation of the Great Indian Bustard. The move comes as India intensifies its ties with the Arab world.
On the sidelines of Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s meeting with his UAE counterpart Sheikh Abdulla bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Wildlife Institute of India signed the MoU for the conservation of the Great Indian Bustard and the Lesser Florican.
In contrast, Pakistan has been issuing permits to Arab sheikhs to hunt the highly endangered Houbara Bustard, a close cousin of the Indian bustard.
So crucial is the blood sport to Pakistan’s soft diplomacy with the Arab world that the Pakistan Supreme Court once withdrew a ban on its hunting after the Government argued that this induced Arab to invest in the country and a ban would affect the country’s relations with the Gulf nations, reported The Tribune.
The World Wide Fund (WWF) was so worried about the indiscriminate hunting of the houbara bustard that it named Pakistan while calling for an immediate ban due to its vulnerable IUCN Red List status
These birds migrate from Central Asia every season and spend the winter in the Indian subcontinent. Although the poaching of the Indian bustard is also a problem in India, the Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had initiated a conservation programme in 2013 that was later improved upon by the Centre and wildlife preservation NGOs.
Incidentally, the World Wide Fund (WWF) was so worried about the indiscriminate hunting of the houbara bustard that it named Pakistan while calling for an immediate ban due to its vulnerable IUCN Red List status.
In contrast, not only are India’s ties with the Arab world a two-way street – UAE and Saudi Arabia are storing their strategic petroleum reserves in India – it has managed to strike a partnership where the UAE’s Houbara Fund, a breeding program for bustards, is in fact protecting the birds while hunting for them in the neighbouring country.
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