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ZOOLOGICAL SURVEY DEPARTMENT HEADQUARTER ISLAMABAD

MARINE BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH LABORATORY,
BLOCK 67, Pakistan Secretariat, KARACHI.

ZOOLOGICAL MUSEUM,
WEST WHARF, KARACHI.

ZOO-CUM-BOTANICAL GARDEN,
ISLAMABAD.

MARINE BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH LABORATORY, KARACHI.

Marine Biological Research Lab. Was established, in 1962, for the survey and research on marine fauna of territorial waters of Pakistan with the following objectives.

  • Survey and study of biology physiology and biochemistry of economically important marine fauna and experiments on various types of Mollusca, wood borer etc. Infesting and damaging shore installations, oysters, pearl oysters, calms, crustacea and other marine animals.
  • Research on other marine problems of economic importance.
Activities
  • Research on vertebrate fauna of mangrove swamps of Pakistan carried out and is still in progress. 50 research papers on mangroves fauna have been published so far.
  • Comprehensive work on Benthic fauna was undertaken and work on fishing net is progress in Indus delta.
  • Research has been carried out on food values of commercially important marine species. Razar clam contain high values of protein and can be cultured on muddy flats near mangroves.
  • Nearly sixty research paper have been published on the taxonomic/biological work on.
    a) Crustacea
    b) Mollusca
    c) Fishes
    d) Echinoderm
    e) Zooplankton
    f) Phytoplankton

ZOOLOGICAL MUSEUM

As a guardian of National Zoological Collections of Pakistan ZSD has got a Natural History Museum which is more significant due to its unique collection. It is a national assets and have large collection of stuffed/mounted/preserved specimen of mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes and marine and land invertebrates. These collections are the representative of all the ecosystem and habitat of the country. Besides, it has an articulated skeleton of a Blue Whale measuring 74 feet length probably the largest whale skeleton in sub continent. In addition to this there are a number of trophies including rare horns and antlers donated by the Bombay Natural History Society at the time of independence.

ZOO-CUM-BOTANICAL GARDEN

Zoos play an important role is mass education, recreation, maintaining gene pools, genetic diversity and captive breeding of endangered species. There are only a few Zoos in the country which do not serve all these objectives. It isessential to establish a Zoo-cum-Botanical Garden of international standard at Islamabad.

Context:
Pakistan, with its geological history, broad latitudinal spread and great altitudinal range, has remarkable diversity of ecosystems. These range from the coastal mangrove forests to spectacular high mountains of western Himalayas, Hindu Kush and Karakoram ranges. These ecosystems support a wide variety of plant and animal species, which constitute the overall biological diversity of the country. Many of these species are either endangered or the verge of extinction mainly because of habitat loss and overexploitation from increasing human populations and associated pressures. As a result, processes such as deforestation, overgrazing, soil erosion, salinity, water-logging, urbanization, pollution and climate change have become major threats to the biological resources of Pakistan.

HISTORY OF THE PROJECT:
Pakistan does’t have a Zoo-cum-Botanical Garden which meets all the requirements for ex-situ conservation of rare and threatened plant/animal species. Establishment of a Zoo-cum-Botanical Garden at Islamabad will not only contribute for conserving biological diversity of Pakistan but will also play an important role in creating awareness and educating general public about the natural heritage of the country.

The history of the project goes as back as 1968. There being no proper Zoo of national level in our country, the Government of Pakistan intended to establish one at Islamabad. The site remained changing from one to the other upto the year 1983. Finally a new site in Banni Gala Hills was identified and selected in 1983.

POSSESSION OF LAND:
A report for selection of a suitable site for the development of Zoo-cum-Botanical Garden was submitted in 1983 and efforts were started for its possession which became fruitful in January 1989.

FEASIBILITY STUDY:
For the feasibility study the following works have been completed:

1. Survey of Fauna and Flora of Banni Gala Hills.
2. Soil Survey of Banni Gala Hills.
3. Vegetation Survey of the area.
4. Soil Resources of Banni Gala Hills.
5. Geological Survey of Banni Gala Hills (With the preparation of the Geological Map).
6. Hydrological Survey.
7. Survey by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service team (The team recommended the site suitable for the development of Zoo-cum-Botanical Garden, Islamabad).
8. Collection of Climatic data from the meteorological Department for the Banni Gala Hills.


PLANNING AND DESIGNING:
For the planning and designing of the Zoo-cum-Botanical Garden, Islamabad the US Fish and Wildlife Service offered to assist the Government of Pakistan free of cost. For this purpose a US Fish and Wildlife Service team visited Pakistan. The team visited various zoos of Pakistan and afterwards visited and surveyed the site of Banni Gala Hills in coordination with the Pakistani team comprising of following five members:

1. Director, ZSD Chairman
2. Engineer from CDA, Member
3. Landscape Architect, CDA Member
4. Botanist from PFI, Member
5. Zoologist, ZCBG, Member

The Pakistani team afterwards visited USA on a short tour of 15 days to see various setups of Zoos and Botanical Gardens. The US team afterwards sent their report for the suitability of the site for the development of Zoo-cum-Botanical Garden, Islamabad. CDA’s Planning Directorate had offered for the planning and designing of the Zoo-cum-Botanical Garden, Islamabad. For this purpose the Landscape architect of CDA demanded the topomaps of Banni Gala Hills at a scale 1: 1000 and 1: 4000 which were provided to him in 1990 after receiving from the Survey of Pakistan. The landscapes architect of CDA prepared the layout plan of Zoo-cum-Botanical Garden and sent to the Ministry for comments in June, 1991.

After that the said project remained dormant for about twelve years. Now the project has again been activated and it is hoped that this process will continue till the completion of the project.

Specific developmental objectives of the Project are:

1. Introduction es-situ conservation of rare and endangered animal/plant species.
2. Creating awareness and educating general public about the natural heritage of the country.
3. Providing research facilities to researchers, students to study life history of rare and endangered fauna/flora.
4. Establishing a repository of genes of endangered plant species.

Expected Impact:
Successful achievement of these objectives will contribute to conservation of Pakistan’s diversity and will provide a national facility for creating awareness and educating masses about the conservation values of our natural wealth.

LIBRARY

The zoological survey has an impressive Library housed in Block 67, Pakistan Secretariat, Karachi. It was established in 1948. The library is rich in rare collection and have books on birds, ecology, environment, fishes, general zoology, paleontology, mammals, insects, natural history, plants, reptiles, taxidermy and others. The collection of Journals reprints is in addition to it. There is a good collection of old Journals of Bombay Natural History, IBIS which are not available in any other library of Pakistan. It is not a big library but it is enough for any zoologist or research student.

This library is categorized as special research library. It provides current bibliographic publications; inter library loan services, classified and catalogued books and indexing service. Library has very old and highly valuable book which are out of print now and are historical treasure of zoological science.

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