In the northern autumns waterfowl, including ducks, geese, swans, bustards, pintails and cranes migrate from central Asia and Siberian to Pakistan and India, the chief conservator of North West Frontier Province Wildlife Department Mumtaz Malik said.

They spend winter in warm lakes and wetlands along Pakistan's Indus and Kabul rivers, or travel further south to India's swamps and reserves before returning in the spring to their northern breeding grounsd.

"They migrate in large numbers. They have their own staging areas, some occupy lakes and wetlands in Pakistan, others move down to India," Malik told

Many do not make it -- shot during their seasonal journeys by eager hunters.

"Migrating ducks, geese and swans, people target these birds," Malik told

"There is a general tendency to believe that as these birds are migratory, if you don't shoot them then people in India or Afghanistan or Arab countries will shoot them, so why not shoot them ourselves so we can at least satisfy ourselves for the sport of hunting, or meat collection?" he said.

"We want to change this tendency."

Wildlife authorities have been trying to regulate the hunting of non-endangered species, with little impact, since 1970.

"The old regulations did not work effectively because communities living along the migratory paths, rivers and wetlands, were not really very educated and cooperative," Malik said.

A scheme launched five years ago to give local communities responsibility for their own conservation of local birds, like partridges and pheasants, has now been extended to cover migratory game.

Ten communities are now operating, in which local people are appointed salaried wildlife watchers with the power to issue hunting permits, prosecute violators of regulations and cordon off game reserves and protected areas.

There are plans for another 10 such communities.

"Ninety percent of the money coming from hunting licences goes to a village conservation fund," Malik said.

His office is proposing to slash the current "bag" limit of 20 birds per gun to 10.

Pakistan only bans the shooting of endangered migratory birds, such as the grey-legged goose, the shell duck and the Siberian crane, which flies over Pakistan to spend winters in India, especially in Rajasthan's Bharatpur wetland reserve.

Malik said surveyors monitoring the passage of Siberian cranes have recorded an alarming decrease in numbers making the annual sojourn -- last autumn only two were spotted heading to India to escape the Siberian cold.

TERRA.WIRE