Khun-zerav National Park (wrongly
known as khunjerab) is a national park in Gilgit Baltistan of Pakistan. Khun means
"blood" and zerav is "to stream" in Wakhi, the native language. The name has been wrongly
pronounced and written for a long time because the language was not developed
at that time and its is difficult to pronounce by speakers of other languages.
The Khunzerav
National Park was
established primarily as a means to protect the Marco Polo sheep (as well as snow leopards and bharal) living in the area. The
borders of the park were mapped by Schaller in 1974, after a short field
survey. The park was formally established on April 29, 1979 by Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who
said that "it must become a world famous park".
Despite being listed as a category 2
national park, banning human activities including agriculture and
hunting, the park was poorly managed, meaning that illegal hunting of
the Marco Polo sheep continued. Because of this, the International
Union for Conservation of Nature commissioned
Norwegian biologist Per Wegge to do a wildlife survey of the park in 1988. Wegge
found that there was no evidence of competition between the domestic sheep being
illegally grazed and the wild Marco Polo sheep, and that most of the illegal
hunting was not being done by local Wakhi residents,
but by Pakistani military and civil officials. He therefore proposed that the park be
reclassified, allowing grazing and commercial hunting, with the profits going
to local residents. However, the government overlooked Wegge's suggestions,
instead drawing up a new management plan, which both the IUCN and the World Wildlife Fund supported as a means to preserve the
park and protect the wildlife. Wegge was critical of the government scheme,
claiming that it was based on financial considerations, with the Pakistani
government hoping to attract tourists to the area. The IUCN agreed with this,
and has since distanced itself from the national park. To help protect the animals from
poaching, the WWF has created the Khunzerav Village Organization, which relies
on people living in the area to report poaching or endangered animal sightings.
Khunzerav National Park
is Pakistan's third largest national park. It is adjacent to Taxkorgan
Natural Reserve (1,400,000ha)
in China.
This park was created on 29 April 1975 on the recommendation of wildlife
biologist Dr. George
Schaller. Over half of the park is above 4,000m. Khunjerab Pass, the
gateway to China via the Karakoram Highway, is at 4,934m.
