������Ƶ

ISLAMABAD: On a late August evening, rescue workers waded through waist-deep floodwaters of the Ravi River to reach an abandoned farmhouse in Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s Punjab province.

Inside, six lions were found pacing in panic, their cages half-submerged. All were saved in time, though conservationists and activists say many more animals have drowned in silence.

Pakistan has been reeling from heavy monsoon rains since late July, with the crisis deepening toward the end of August when downpours coincided with water releases from dams in upstream India. For the first time in four decades, the Ravi, Chenab and Sutlej rivers all flooded simultaneously, inundating thousands of settlements and more than a million acres of farmland, destroying crops and sweeping away livestock.

Amid the national struggle to cope with the disaster, little attention has been paid to exotic animals like lions and tigers kept in private collections, makeshift zoos and even backyards. Many were left to drown, starve or wander into unfamiliar terrain.

“I cannot think of a crueler death than to be locked in a cage with water rising,” said animal rights activist Quatrina Hussain. “Owners who abandoned these animals must be held criminally responsible.”

STATUS SYMBOLS

In Pakistan, owning a lion is legal and often flaunted as a status symbol. Videos of men parading their pet cubs on TikTok or driving through city streets with lions on leashes have gone viral in recent years.

Behind the glamor is a licensing regime so lax it raises no real barriers.

According to Altamush Saeed, an animal rights lawyer, all it takes is around 100,000 rupees ($355) and proof of land ownership of at least 12 acres on paper to get a permit to own a big cat.

“There’s no serious vetting, no checks on whether you can provide veterinary care or safe housing,” he said. “Anyone with money can obtain a license. It’s not only a threat to the animals but also to human health, especially now with floodwaters spreading disease.”

Recent amendments to the Wildlife Management and Conservation Act of 1974 introduced stronger anti-cruelty clauses and empowered rangers to act against violators. But big cats remain excluded from the strictest protections, allowing lions and tigers to continue to be bought, bred and sold with little oversight.

Pakistan’s record-breaking floods have turned this negligence into a crisis. Indigenous wildlife has already been decimated, said Hussain.

“Whether you look at the Markhor or you look at other Pakistani indigenous animals, these floods have devastated habitats,” she said. “They have devastated the human population. They have devastated the livestock, the cattle. So we don't really have any accounting for the kind of damage that we are seeing to wildlife habitat.”

“We absolutely have no idea how many animals were in cages. What kind of animals were in cages [in private zoos]?”

Wildlife conservationist Azhar Ahmed described how disasters magnify risks: “When the super floods come, animals are forced onto dykes or shallow areas. That’s when poaching spikes.”

“In the last super floods [in 2022], the hare, which we call the ‘khargosh,’ got almost extinct,” he said. “We do not find one single hare from Chhatta to Sukkur [in Sindh].”

PUBLIC HEALTH RISKS

Displaced people and animals are also forced to compete for shrinking ground, creating flashpoints of conflict. Experts warn the risk is no longer limited to animal welfare but also public health.

“These diseases are called zoonotic diseases, that can be transmitted from animals to humans,” said Dr. Maria Asif, a Lahore-based veterinarian. “There are many such diseases e.g. leptospirosis, which is transmitted by animal urine.”

Similarly, many such diseases can pass through animal feces, she added.

“In flood situations, where the possibility of infected animal feces mixed with floodwaters coming in contact with humans is much higher, the spread of such diseases is much more probable.”

Experts say solutions exist but require political will.

Ahmed suggested professional, large-scale breeding under scientific supervision, if only to redirect the thriving private market into regulated, safer channels.

“But without transparency and accountability, breeding programs risk becoming just another loophole,” he cautioned.

For now, Islamabad remains an outlier. In 2020, senior judge Justice Athar Minallah ordered the city zoo shut down, relocating some of its animals to international sanctuaries.

But outside the capital, enforcement remains weak, and lions continue to be caged in private compounds, often lacking even the basic requirements for survival.

Hussain argued Pakistan must phase out private zoos and fund sanctuaries instead:

“Thailand has a tiger conservation program, Cambodia rehabilitates elephants. Why can’t we do the same? We need provincial governments to fund sanctuaries, not licenses.”

NEW YORK: The UN General Assembly will vote on Friday whether to back the “New York Declaration,” a resolution which seeks to breathe new life into the two-state solution between Israel and Palestine -- without the involvement of Hamas.

Although Israel has criticized UN bodies for nearly two years over their failure to condemn Hamas's attack on October 7, 2023, the declaration, presented by France and ������Ƶ, leaves no ambiguity.

Formally called the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, the text states “Hamas must free all hostages” and that the UN General Assembly condemns “the attacks committed by Hamas against civilians on the 7th of October.

It also calls for “collective action to end the war in Gaza, to achieve a just, peaceful and lasting settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on the effective implementation of the Two-State solution.”

The declaration, which was already endorsed by the Arab League and co-signed in July by 17 UN member states, including several Arab countries, also goes further than condemning Hamas, seeking to fully excise them from leadership in Gaza.

“In the context of ending the war in Gaza, Hamas must end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, with international engagement and support, in line with the objective of a sovereign and independent Palestinian State,” the declaration states.

The vote precedes an upcoming UN summit co-chaired by Riyadh and Paris on September 22 in New York, in which French President Emmanuel Macron has promised to formally recognize the Palestinian state.

Shield against criticism

“The fact that the General Assembly is finally backing a text that condemns Hamas directly is significant,” even if “Israelis will say it is far too little, far too late,” Richard Gowan, UN Director at the International Crisis Group, told AFP.

“Now at least states supporting the Palestinians can rebuff Israeli accusations that they implicitly condone Hamas,” he said, adding that it “offers a shield against Israeli criticism.”

In addition to Macron, several other leaders have announced their intent to formally recognize the Palestinian state during the UN summit.

The gestures are seen as a means of increasing pressure on Israel to end the war in Gaza, which was triggered by the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas.

The New York Declaration includes discussion of a “deployment of a temporary international stabilization mission” to the battered region under the mandate of the UN Security Council, aiming to support the Palestinian civilian population and facilitate security responsibilities to the Palestinian Authority.

Around three-quarters of the 193 UN member states recognize the Palestinian state proclaimed in 1988 by the exiled Palestinian leadership.

However, after two years of war have ravaged the Gaza Strip, in addition to expanded Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the stated desire by Israeli officials to annex the territory, fears have been growing that the existence of an independent Palestinian state will soon become impossible.

“We are going to fulfill our promise that there will be no Palestinian state,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Thursday.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, meanwhile, may be prevented from visiting New York for the UN summit after US authorities said they would deny him a visa.