Deh Akro-II Desert Wetland Complex locally referred to as Deh Akro, is one of the ten Ramsar sites located in

Sindh Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind (caliphal province), Sind or Scinde) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, southeastern region of the country, Sindh is t ...

province of

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. Designated under the

Ramsar convention The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar site, Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on We ...

in 2002, the internationally significant site has mainly an inland wetland ecosystem and covers an area of around .

Location

The complex lies in central Sindh in

Shaheed Benazirabad District Shaheed Benazirabad District (, ) previously known as Nawabshah District, is a district in the province of Sindh, Pakistan. Renaming The district was renamed in September 2008 when members of the Provincial Assembly of Sindh from Nawabshah l ...

, in proximity to the regions of Naushahra Feroz District at a distance of approximately in the northeast of the provincial capital,

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

. In the northeast of the complex, borders the

Nara desert The Nara desert is a division of the Thar Desert of Sindh situated in the Sindh province of Pakistan. Nara is the northeastern part of the Thar Desert in Sindh. It primarily occupies the Khairpur district and a few parts of Sanghar District. It co ...

which is a subdivision of the larger

Thar Desert The Thar Desert (), also known as the Great Indian Desert, is an arid region in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent that covers an area of in India and Pakistan. It is the world's 18th-largest desert, and the world's 9th-large ...

Status

The site was officially declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1988. Moreover, proper measures were undertaken by WWF-Pakistan to make the wetland reach criteria; 1 – 6 and 8 for Ramsar designation in 2002. Later in 2004, the site was listed in

Important Bird and Biodiversity Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

s by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

under criteria; A1 and A4iii.

Geography

Deh Akro-II Complex preserves a diverse collection of

wildlife Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animals and uncultivated plant species which can exist in their natural habitat, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introdu ...

due to the alteration of geographic features within the confines of the complex. It comprises

marsh In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p More in genera ...

y areas,

agricultural land Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other organism, forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous ...

sandy desert A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the la ...

s, and

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

s, which collectively raise it a site holding the four varying habitats. In between the desert land with an average of 5 to 10-metre sand, there are plain interdunal valleys transversing with freshwater lakes in them. Out of a total of thirty-six lakes which form the wetland of the complex, five are freshwater lakes while the remaining lakes are mostly composed of

brack water Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...

due to considerable salts concentrations. All are waterbodies from the local irrigations specially the

Nara Canal The Nara Canal is a Distributary, delta channel of the Indus River in Sindh province, Pakistan that was built as an excavated channel stemming off the left bank of the Indus River to join the course of the old Nara River, a tributary c.q. paleoch ...

of the

Indus River The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayas, Himalayan river of South Asia, South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northw ...

of the region, and are also fed by rainwater. Due to water scarcity and climate change, the wetland complex which initially contained 45 lakes as of 1988, reduced to 36 lakes in 2003. Later in 2021, the number reportedly dropped to 32. There are also human settlements in the complex which include Kunjwaro, Nathantal, Lalantar, Drigadaro, Pokhal-wari, Husayfakir, and some others.

Biodiversity

In Deh Akro-II Complex, the commonly inhabiting animals are

crocodile Crocodiles (family (biology), family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large, semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term "crocodile" is sometimes used more loosely to include ...

otter Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which includes weasels, badgers, mink, and wolverines, among ...

waterfowl Anseriformes is an order of birds also known as waterfowl that comprises about 180 living species of birds in three families: Anhimidae (three species of screamers), Anseranatidae (the magpie goose), and Anatidae, the largest family, which i ...

s, and

fishes A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fins and a hard skull, but lacking limbs with digits. Fish can be grouped into the more basal jawless fish and the more common jawed ...

. A community of some of the rare and endangered species of the world survive here. Notable rare species inhabiting the sanctuary include; oriental darter (''

Anhinga melanogaster The Oriental darter (''Anhinga melanogaster'') is a water bird of tropical South Asia and Southeast Asia. It has a long and slender neck with a straight, pointed bill and, like the cormorant, it hunts for fish while its body is submerged in water ...

''), garganey (''

Anas Querquedula The garganey (''Spatula querquedula'') is a small dabbling duck. It breeds in much of Europe and across the Palearctic, but is strictly migratory, with the entire population moving to Africa, India (in particular Santragachi), Bangladesh (in th ...

''), desert wildcat (''

Felis lybica The African wildcat (''Felis lybica'') is a small wildcat species with sandy grey fur, pale vertical stripes on the sides and around the face. It is native to Africa, West and Central Asia, and is distributed to Rajasthan in India and Xinjiang in ...

''), and black ibis (''

Pseudibis papillosa The red-naped ibis (''Pseudibis papillosa'') also known as the Indian black ibis or black ibis is a species of Threskiornithinae, ibis found in the plains, agriculture fields and cities of the Indian Subcontinent. Unlike other ibises in the regio ...

''). The endangered animal species include Indian hog deer (''

Axis porcinus The Indian hog deer (''Axis porcinus''), or Indochinese hog deer, is a small cervid native to the region of the Indian subcontinent and Indo-Gangetic Plain. Introduced populations are established in Australia, as well as the United States and Sri ...

''), fudge duck ('' Aythya nyroca''), and mugger crocodile ('' Crocodylus palustris''). With over 20,000 waterbirds, the wildlife sanctuary supports 101 avian species. It hosts a total of 14 fishes, 16 reptilian, and 18 mammalian species which are listed as follows:

Fishes

Reptiles

Mammals

Marsh crocodiles

The national reptile of Pakistan, ''Crocodylus palustris'', commonly called as the "marsh crocodile", has been a vital subject among species of crocodiles in the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

. In Deh Akro-II, the crocodile inhabits the swamps, marshlands, and lakes. Throughout the last three decades, this IUCN's redlisted species faced reduction in its population due to

poaching Poaching is the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set against the huntin ...

, prolonged

water shortage Water scarcity (closely related to water stress or water crisis) is the lack of fresh water resources to meet the standard water demand. There are two types of water scarcity. One is ''physical.'' The other is ''economic water scarcity''. Physic ...

and

habitat destruction Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

in the Deh Akro-II. As of 2021, the international conservationists pointed out a 90 percent decline in the count of crocodiles during the period.

Notes

References

External links

Community Based Wetland Management Deh Akro-II
at WWF-Pakistan site. *Nyal, Mueenuddin (3 February 2020). by WWF-Pakistan * {{Protected areas of Pakistan Shaheed Benazirabad District Landforms of Sindh Protected areas of Sindh Important Bird Areas of Pakistan Ramsar sites in Pakistan Wildlife sanctuaries of Pakistan