PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has bifurcated the wildlife department into northern and southern regions until the officer, who heads the northern region and the attached department, retires six months later.

[This] administrative arrangement shall be effective until June 23, 2015, i.e. the date of retirement of Mr Safdar Ali Shah, chief conservator wildlife region-I Peshawar, from government service. Following his retirement, this arrangement will be reviewed by the administrative department,` reads a notifica-tion of the forestry, environment and wildlife department.

The wildlife department was a wing of the forestry department until 1993 when it was separated and placed under the chief conservator (wildlife) and headed by the chief conservator (wildlife), a BPS20 officer.

The notification said that the chief conservator`s office was divided into two regions for effective management and better service delivery in the wildlife department.

It said that the northern region, also called Region-I, would be headed by the chief conservator, Region-I would be headquartered in Peshawar, housed at forest and wildlife complex and will comprise Malakand and Hazara wildlife circles, Peshawar and Swat mini zoo.

Besides, the southern region or region II, headed by the chief conservator region II, will also be headquartered at Peshawar and will comprise of southern and central wildlife circles and Merged AreasIntegrated Forestry Circle Project.

It will be housed at the Merged Areas Integrated Development Forestry Sector Project.

Regarding the administrative and managerial responsibilities of both offices, the notification noted that the chief conservator (north) region-I will be the head of the attached department in terms of rule 3 read with schedule-I of KP Government Rules of Business 1985 and chief technical advisor to the government in all affairs of wildlife in the Forest Manual Volume-II.

Besides, the official will also be overall in charge of the wildlife administration/management in the province and will be responsible for management of wildlife resources and its administration including protected areas management in the region-I (excluding national parks) and will be answerable and report to the administrative department.

The notification said that conservator wildlife Peshawar zoo, conservator wildlife Malakand Hazaracircle and project director mini zoo Swat would report to chief conservator region-I.

Chief conservator region II or southern region, on the other hand, will be responsible for the management of the wildlife resources and its administration including protected areas management in the region (excluding national parks) and will be answerable and report to the administrative department with respect to the wildlife affairs of his region.

Besides, conservator wildlife Bannu, conservator wildlife central circle Peshawar and project director merged areas integrated development forestry sector project would report to the chief conservator wildlife region-II.

A wildlife department official, who did not want to be named, told Dawn that the temporary bifurcation had upended the working of the department, which was previously supervised by one officer.

`Previously the officer who is now chief conservator region-I was pro-moted to a person specific post of BPS-20, which will be downgraded to BPS-19 upon his retirement, and now this department has been bifurcated until his retirement, raising a lot of questions,` he said.

In February last year, the caretaker government approved the creation of a BPS-20 post of the chief conservator wildlife.

`In pursuance of the approval by the caretaker provincial cabinet, the finance department agrees to the creation of one post of chief conservator wildlife BPS-20 in the forestry, environment, and wildlife department during the current financial year 2023-24, with the condition that the created post shall stand downgraded to the post of conservator (BPS-19) after the retirement of Mr Safdar Ali Shah,` read a provincial finance department notification issued on Feb 12, 2024.

When contacted, forestry and wildlife secretary Shahid Zaman insisted that the arrangement wasnot temporary.He said that the wildlife department was working on a territorial basis and there was little specialisation, which already existed in its sister forestry department, having several specialised wings.

Mr Zaman said there was no research in the department, which was operating at very basic levels.

`In the first step, we have divided the department on a territorial basis into north and south regions.

We`re also going to set up another wing to manage national parks. It is not possible for a single chief conservator to oversee an entire province together with merged areas is not possible,` he said.

The secretary said after the retirement of the chief conservator (north), the department would manage the post but it won`t be `downgraded.

`It will not be much difficult for us to retain this position. We will also create another chief conservator for national parks to promote eco-tourism,` he said.