In good old days Hokarsar as a wetland game reserve was vast and covered an area of about 14 sq. kilometers but now due to negligence the lake has shrunken and is dying. The Doodh Ganga water canal has been diverted into the Hokarsar, resulting in siltation. All the aquatic flora and fauna perished and resulting inadequate supply of food available for migratory birds. This siltation resulted in dumping and shallowness of Hokarsar and promoted growth of useless grasses and weeds.
Instead of dredging the wetland, a disastrous bund was constructed in order to prevent siltation but it worsened the situation for the unfortunate wetland as it divided the Hokarsar into two and minimized it almost by 50%. The catastrophe did not end here as the farmers encroached the left over area freely.
In my childhood I used to go for duck hunting with my father to wetlands such as Hokersar, Hygam, Mirgund, Shalbugh etc. which was a refuge to hundreds of thousands of birds, especially Greylag goose, Egyptian goose, Mallards, Pintails, Gadwall, Wigeons, Red Crested Pochard, Tufted duck, Pochards, Green Winged Teal, Gargeny Teal, Shovelers, Coots etc. Birds were seen scattered all over the wetlands as the wetlands used to be full of water. Weed and grass growth was confined to some areas only. It was common to see migratory birds by the hundreds of thousands, on occasions the sky would literally darken overhead. Unfortunately now-a-days these birds are confined to a small area not sufficient for them to rest and feed as rest of wetland has been taken over by useless weed, grass growth and land mass due to slit which make birds bypass the valley.
The early migratory birds arrive in the valley during first week of September, at that time our wetlands are scanty of water, it cause inconvenience to these migratory birds, and skip staying in these wetlands hence reduction in the number.
Falsely people are blaming duck hunters for the decrease in bird population; the fact is that there has been no duck hunting for the last two decades except negligible incidents by few poachers. So what is the reason other than that the habitat of the birds has been destroyed.
In western countries hunting is being done in a disciplined manner and under conservation programs. The number of birds being short by the hunters is not even a fraction of the growth in population of birds under normal habitat conditions.
A good hunter is always an environmentalist and  a conservationist, due to the fact that it is for their own interest, they explore and check the conditions of the habitat and are always the main critics of the departments concerned with wildlife and the surrounding. 
It has been more than a half-century since environmentalists fought for the laws and regulations that created a new system of wildlife management that would rescue many species of wildlife from near extinction and would set aside thousands of acres of important habitat to help ensure future wildlife abundance. Some people oppose hunting because they feel that by preserving wildlife, it will increase. Wildlife, however, is a resource that cannot be stockpiled. If any annual overabundance of game is not harvested, nature often takes over in a cruel and harsh way. Weather, more than any other factor, often decides the fate of wildlife. Just as wildlife will flourish under ideal weather conditions–mild winters and bountiful springs–the opposite is true when seasons are harsh. In a harsh winter, when oversized flocks of birds deplete all available food, merciless death by slow starvation is inevitable.
Predators attack the young and hunger-weakened stragglers. Disease and parasites add to the toll. More often mortality rate is more than what hunters would take as a reasonable surplus in the fall.
Hunters in most cases rarely take more than 15 percent of the total game population This management concept is more evident with gamebirds. Chukar has an annual mortality rate of 75 to 80 percent whether it is hunt or not. Dove and pheasant populations are likewise regulated far more by factors of feed, cover and weather, than by hunting. It is apparent that hunting is a useful part of today’s wise game management practices.

Muzaffar Ahmed is a conservationist.
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Lastupdate on : Mon, 6 Feb 2012 21:30:00 Mecca time
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