The Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas) and the Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) are two of the seven species of sea turtles in the world that nest at the beaches of Pakistan every year. This documentary was produced and aired by Geo TV in December 2006, the Year of the Turtle, and has been uploaded here with their permission.

KARACHI, May 3: The two green turtles on which satellite transmitters were installed in September 2006 for the mapping of their movement in the Arabian Sea have gone missing, it emerged on Thursday.

The data sent in by the transmitters of the turtles, which were named Chandni III and Chandni IV, was last recorded in November 2006, sources told Dawn.

This was the second attempt by Pakistan at the mapping of the movement of the green turtles. In August 2001, two turtles, named Chandni I and Chandni II, were mounted with satellite transmitters. They went missing when shortly after the Sept 11 attacks on US soil the Arabian Sea played host to American warships launching attacks on Afghanistan.

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KARACHI, Feb 10: Tree felling on a large scale is under way for clearing grounds in the Nara Desert Wildlife Sanctuary (NDWS), it is learnt. This, if not stopped immediately, could lead to an environmental disaster ultimately ruining the already fragile desert ecosystem and severely affecting the fauna and flora in the process.

According to sources, influential loggers are selling the wood, which is then converted into coal, whereas the land thus cleared is brought under cultivation. The practice, banned under the Sindh Wildlife Protection Act, is posing a serious threat to the entire ecosystem, they added.

They pointed out that thousands of acres of the sanctuary land, spread over one million acres, has been cleared of trees and converted into agricultural fields. They estimated that the coal produced from the timber through this practice amounts to a few thousand tonnes.

According to the sources, the ecologically rich Nara Desert was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1980 under the Sindh Wildlife Protection Ordinance, and is home to over 110 bird species, 15 mammal species, 11 reptile species and over 150 floral species.

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