CHITRAL, Oct 18: Authentic data of Chitral`s flora and fauna is not available with the local wildlife department, according to researchers.

Haider Wali, who is doing research on wildlife as part for his post-graduation course at a government university, told Dawn that Chitral was the richest district of the province with regard to biodiversity.

`Chitral is home to national animal markhor, national bird chakor and state animal snow leopard but despite all this, the government has never tried to use it for progress and development in the area,` he said.

Mr Haider said it was unfortunate that the wildlife department had never tried tocompile statistics of the local flora and fauna and always complained about shortage of funds.

He said none of the four universally applied methods were employed in Chitral to know the wildlife size for better management and research.

The researcher said the survey of game species was carried out worldwide thrice a year i.e. during breeding/hatching season and before and after hunting season, but in Chitral, it was done once a year and that, too, using obsolete method.

`The survey methods include total counting, incomplete counting, indirect counting and mark-recapture of wildlife but here in Chitral, only incomplete counting isused. These methods are for different species and ecologies but here all cases are dealt with the same method raising doubts about the accuracy and authenticity of the wildlife data,` he said.

Mr Haider, however, said the wildlife department had accurate record of some species, including snow leopard and lynx, for whose protection, some international organisations had taken initiatives.

He said the number of markhors in Chitral Gol National Park could also be accurate due to the limited territory but the department offered questionable statistics about the animal`s population in the area outside the park.

When contacted, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) ofWildlife Division, Chitral Imtiaz Ahmad said the wildlife population in the forest were counted on the basis of observations recorded by watchers posted there.

`When a watcher or deputy ranger of a wildlife block sees an animal, he notes it down and reports it to the department on the basis of which the animal`s population in the area is calculated,` he said.

DFO of Chitral Gol National Park Division Shakil Ahmad failed to give the exact number of the wildlife species present in the park.

Also, no record is available with the department of the population density of reptiles and important species of herbivores and carnivores in the district.