Pakistan's Dhodial pheasantry: A happy tale of conservation.

Byline: Adeel Saeed

Dhodial in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province has become the centre of international attention for housing Asia's largest pheasantry, established four decades ago next to the Karakoram Highway that connects Pakistan with China.

Named after the small town in the province's Mansehra district, it sprawls across 12.5 acres and is home to around 4,000 birds, representing 38 of the 50 pheasant species in the world. Six are indigenous species, found largely in the Himalayas.

The pheasantry functions as a multi-purpose centre for breeding, education, research and recreation. With a focus on ex-situ conservation of endangered pheasants, it promotes the concept of aviculture among people through the display of beautiful birds.

Colourful peacocks of different breeds kept at a large enclosure to attract visitors. - Photo courtesy: Divisional Wildlife Office, Mansehra

"The pheasantry was established with the idea of educating and involving the general public in the conservation process," said Mumtaz Malik, former chief conservator at the wildlife department and founder of the Dhodial pheasantry.

"This was done by offering the incentive of obtaining a pair of birds on nominal rates to keep at home for breeding, or even for the sale of grown up chicks. We wanted to improve the wild bird population by attracting people."

Bringing back the dwindling cheer

Among its conservation efforts, perhaps the Dhodial pheasantry's greatest achievement is its successful reintroduction of the cheer pheasant which had disappeared from Pakistan.

According to a study, the cheer pheasant (Catreus wallichii) is distributed throughout the southern foothills of the western Himalayas, and favours the open forest and shrubland occurring in northern Pakistan, India and central Nepal.

The population of cheer, which is listed on the IUCN red list as "vulnerable", witnessed a significant decline due to hunting and egg collection, conversion of grasslands to agricultural land, burning and livestock grazing. All of these resulted in habitat degradation, loss and isolation of the bird.

In 1980, Islamabad's Capital Development Authority (CDA) took notice of the threat to the bird and hatched a 'reintroduction plan' with help from the World Pheasants Association (WPA). The WPA sent 90 eggs to Pakistan, which yielded a stock of chicks, Malik recounted.

The hatching of these chicks was a boost for the captive breeding programme for these species, some of which...