LOC16:58
13:58 GMT
By Muntaha Al-Fadhli (with photos)
KUWAIT, Jan 10 (KUNA) -- The Ornithological Society of Kuwait called for
regulating grazing in the country to preserve the animals' habitat, the
environment and the human natives.
The chairman of the society, Abdel Rahman Al-Serhan, said in a statement to
KUNA that the country's unihabited areas and landscapes suffer from exessive
cutting of trees, grazing and altering features of the meadows. "We are being
so slack in terms of protecting the environment," he added, calling for the
enacting of special regulations to safeguard the uninhabited areas.
Some people have been unprooting shrubs using digging machines and selling
them as livestock feed in the fodder market, Al-Serhan said. Others cut down
trees and chop their trunks to feed their animals. "Such negative practices
that can be seen .. must be stopped."
The region stretching from the north of Al-Salmi road in Al-Jahraa to
Al-Salmi border checkpoint and the plot of land from the west of Abdali road
in Al-Jahraa to Al-Abdali border station have been subject to excessive
grazing. "And now after the rain fall, the number of randomly-built cattle
barns have multiplied."
Only a few trees have survived the human campaign of annihiliation in the
lands around the inhabited regions, and those offenders have been targeting
these trees with uprooting and if conditions remain unchanged there will be
total annihilation of Kuwait's wealth of animals and plants, he warned.
He called for special regulations to protect the habitat, such as setting
up a schedule for grazing, where it can be prohibited for some time during the
year to give time for the plants and shrubs to grow. Moreober, grazing should
be governed with a set of rules and laws, such as specifying the number of the
heads of the animals to be let loose in the desert areas.
He also made other proposals such as prohibiting usage of vehicles in the
meadows, called for a media campaign to enhance the public awarness of the
necessity of protecting the environment and establishing new natural reserves
to protect various animal and plant species from extinction. (end)
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KUNA 101658 Jan 10NNNN