By Minahil Makhdoom
ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Climate Change, Malik Amin Aslam on Monday said the presence of Shezadi, a female leopard along with other leopards inside Margallah Hills National Park (MHNP) was an indicator of the good health of its ecosystem. “Leopards keep a control on the population of wild herbivores like wild boars, which is important to the health of the forest as herbivores can easily overgraze and that can affect forest regeneration and growth,†the SAPM said. He added: “The common leopard is actually not so common anymore and Islamabad’s citizens can feel a sense of pride in that these endangered animals have taken up permanent residence next to a busy city in the protected Margallah Hills†.
Aslam said there was wide availability of natural prey for the leopards inside the Margallah Hills, which also provided a safe refuge for breeding purposes. He added that it was illegal to hunt the leopards or harm them in any way. “People visiting MHNP or living inside the park have to respect nature and live in co-existence with the rich wildlife found there”. A female common leopard named “Shezadi†by the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) for her royal carriage has been found to be a permanent resident of territory between Trails 4 and 6 inside the Margallah Hills National Park. Shezadi has been caught on camera traps set up by the IWMB staff for several evenings in a row in late January. “ From the areas that we have sampled using camera traps since 2019, we have identified at least 5 individual common leopards living within the boundaries of the Margallah Hills National Park,†says IWMB Chair, Rina Saeed Khan. “Shezadi is now familiar with the trails that humans take and avoids them during the day. Most attacks by leopards on humans are in self defense – intentional attacks are rare” . The common leopard is a critically endangered species and the top predator of the park. Leopards are very territorial and a leopard that knows his or her territory (usually marked by him/her over 50 square km) is much safer than a new leopard that will move in to claim the dead leopard’s territory, say wildlife experts.
Shezadi has been living inside the park in the territory she has marked and now patrols, as a permanent resident since at least last year. She was last filmed on January 31th 2021. Her rosetta pattern has been identified to be the same one as of a leopard caught on a camera trap in June 2020. Visitors to the Margallah National Park were requested to observe the warning signs of leopard territories and to stay on the marked trails and to not enter the park when it gets dark. They should preferably hike in groups, refrain from cycling in the park and return half an hour before sunset and enter a full hour after dawn.
