Margalla Hills National Park is a 

national park located in Islamabad Capital Territory, Pakistan. The

park includes the Margalla Hills, which form's the foothills of the Himalayas, along with Shakarparian

Park and Rawal Lake. Established in 1980, it is the third-largest national park in the world with an

area of 17,386 hectares (42,960 acres). Tilla Charouni with a height of 1604m is tallest peak in the

park. Margalla Hills are a tourist destination, with Daman-e-Koh and Pir Sohawa serving as popular

hill stations, while Shakarparian Cultutal Complex and Lake View Park are popular picnic spots. The

park is rich in biodiversity, especially rich in Sino-Himalayan fauna, most notably gray goral, barking

deer and the Leopard. Combined MHNP is home to around 600 plant species, 402 bird varieties, 38

mammals and 27 species of reptiles. PTDC is currently constructing a chairlift project in the park.

Location
Instituted in 1980, the Margalla Hills National Park comprises the Margalla Hills (12605 hectares)
the Rawal Lake, and Shakarparian Sports and Cultural complex. Located in Islamabad, the capital of
Pakistan. The hill range nestles between an elevation of 685 meters at the western end and 1,604
meters on its east.

Flora and fauna

The vegetation of the southern slopes is short stuttered, comprising deciduous and evergreen trees
with diverse shrub growth. In the north, stand pines and groves of oak. The fauna is mainly Indo
Himalayan, with some overlapping of Palearctic species. The birds found here are residents as well
as winter migrants from higher altitudes of the north, spring and summer visitor for breeding, and
short day transit species arrive in spring. 
Margalla hills has a number of torrents which gush down in the monsoon. Natural springs are also
present. Margalla has a variety of mammals, they include: 1. Indian Leopard 2. Jungle Cat 3.
Leopard Cat 4. Indian Wolf 5. Golden Jackal 6. Red fox 7. White footed fox 8. Yellow throated
marten 9. Indian grey mongoose 10.Javan mongoose 11.Indian Crested porcupine 12.Indian
hedgehog 13.Indian Pangolin 14.Masked palm civet 15.Asian palm civet 16.Small Indian Civet
17.Rhesus Macaque 18.Northern Palm squirrel 19.Small Kashmir flying squirrel 20.Indian flying fox
21.Grey Goral 22.Indian Muntjac 23.Indian wild boar 24.Murree Vole[endemic to Margalla, Murree
and KPK]
It is also home to a large number of birds such as larks, paradise flycatcher, black
partridge, shrikes pheasants, spotted doves, Egyptian vultures, falcons, hawks and eagles.
Reptiles such as the Russell's viper, Indian cobra and saw-scaled viper are found here.

Tourism, trekking and sports

The National Park is the most accessible in Pakistan due to its close proximity to the national
capital, Islamabad. It is a significant hub for bird lovers throughout the year. There are several hiking
trails (Trail 1, Trail 2, Trail 3, Trail 4, Trail 5, Trail 6, Trail 7 (Shah Allah Dittah)), with the most
famous being Trail 3 and trail 5.
Rock climbing
There are many spots for rock climbing in Margalla Hills. Few crags have been developed but, still a
lot of potential available to explore virgin lines.
For beginner level climbers, following crags are suggested:

Name of crag Number of Pitches Difficulty Level

Jasmine Corner (Margalla Hills) 3 Beginner Level

Musical Lounge 2 Beginner to Intermediate Level

Saidpur Village 2 Beginner Level

Shahdra Wall 4 Beginner to Intermediate Level

Shah Allah Dittah 2 Beginner to expert Level

Although, sport climbing is becoming increasingly popular among the youth

of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. but, only few local climbers can climb at advance level. Therefore,
most of the crags remain uncrowded.

Resorts in Margalla Hills violating

environmental laws
Islamabad: The Margalla Hills National Park (MHNP) was facing serious
environmental threat due to poor waste management of hill resorts established in the
adjoining area of Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Talking to this agency, an official of Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB)

said the MHNP’s ecology and water springs were being polluted by over a dozen hill
resorts established in the vicinity and adjoining areas of the national park.

These hill resorts were offering a very lavish lodging and other services to the tourists
visiting MHNP and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s scenic hill stations whereas they had no
proper mechanism for their solid waste management and sewage dumping, hence
clearly violating environmental laws, he added.
The IWMB official on condition of anonymity said the most of the time the hotels
staffs were throwing wasted food items in the national park, which had badly
disturbed the wildlife habitat and shifts in the movements of the species in MHNP.

He said that there used to be soaking pits developed by any restaurant or hotel to
properly manage its municipal waste disposal, however, to the contrary there was no
such facility built. The springs have been repeatedly found polluted due to liquid
waste contamination which testify the situation further.

“The fresh water flows are a source of water for both humans and wildlife in the
national park which helps restoring the bird life as well,” he noted. When contacted
the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Environmental Protection Agency (EPA-KP) officials
deputed in Haripur district said that it was the provincial government’s responsibility
to declare the land as forest land in order to control any construction disturbing
environment.

“EPA-KP has sealed 26 resorts and hotels in Balakot, Naran and Kaghan Valley for
no solid waste management and violations as per environmental laws,” he told this
agency. However, the EPA-KP had only two inspectors for single district.

There were only two officers appointed in Hazara division against four sanctioned
posts, he added. The official said that they were currently under staff and managing a
large area under their jurisdiction including Hatar Industrial estate, Mansehra and
Swat marble estate.

Moreover, “We were also coordinating with the district administration to deal with the
various environmental issues as well,” he said. EPA-KP staff in Haripur district was
recently deputed whereas the agency had been devising mechanism to take the law
abettors to task, he said.

Causes of deforestation in “Margalla Hills

National Park”
The Margalla hill Nation Park is one of the ecologically significant protected areas in
Pakistan. It was established on 27th April 1980 by the federal government in order to
preserve the natural landscape of the surroundings of the capital city and biodiversity of
the area. The total area of the park is 158,83ha.

Margalla hills represent a contact lone between two important biological regions, the
great indo Himalayan ecosystem and the arid iranio saharan ecosystem. Two distinct
ecological zones are found in the park i-e- subtropical pine forest and subtropical dry
deciduous forest.

People in the surrounding areas of national park are highly dependent on national
resources before  1999, after that CDA acquired whole park area and now their
activities and dependent on mountain resources is bounded but still some areas are
facing the problem of deforestation, misuse of other natural resources, human
settlement, overgrazing and erosion. Park forests are highly damaged by high grazing and
cutting of timber species.

Mother of all the problems of the park or any area is uncontrolled population as well as
the low literacy and lack of awareness. Education has significant impact on the life of an
individual. In this area education facilities are not adequate and only men can get
education.

Another factor is over and uncontrolled grazing in unacquired area. Animals are allowed
to graze any time any where without any manageable method or plan with thinking of
carrying capacity.

A large number of tourists at every time in whole park area at all recreational sites are
badly destroying the plants species. There is no awareness available at the spot to guide
the tourists about the wealth of the area.

Illegal and unmonitored human activities in the forested area caused threats to forest
ecosystem. These activities include the felling of trees for sale and domestic
consumption, human induced fires to cut the land etc.

In all the conditions there is a need to prepare comprehensive management plan for
Margalla Hills National Park which address all the problems of the area and initiate
awareness in local people as well as in tourists.
 ‘People’s interventions in Margalla
Hills disturbing wildlife habitats’
ISLAMABAD-People living in villages around Margalla Hills National Park
are disturbing wildlife habitats posing threat to their natural occupation,
said Islamabad Wildlife Management Board Assistant Director Sakhawat
Ali.

He said that the wildlife including wild boars and leopards existing in the
Park had been facing serious habitat problems. He said that boars mostly
lived in specific areas where females among piglets used to leave such
area in search of food. However, dumpster placed on the sides of the
federal capital roads had been a very good source of food for the wild
boars but the boars are migrating to Ayubia and some other parts of
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa due to human and wildlife conflicts.

“Their migration to Ayubia is a good sign as boars will survive as they are
mostly prey for leopards, however, KP will be a different situation for the
boars as the environment is not suitable there,” he added.

Sakhawat said: “Wild boars had been in abundance across the

subcontinent where anthropogenic activities reduced them to certain
limited habitats. Long time ago there had been Asian Lion reported to be
existing in MHNP where hunting pressure resulted in its extinction. It now
exists only in India and might have migrated due to unfavourable
conditions,” he added.

To a question, he said that wild boars are omnivores and feed on

everything, adding, “In MHNP, they eat the calves of barking deer, chicks
and eggs of pheasants in the park.”
The park, he said, was the last habitat for indigenous flora and fauna of
Himalayan foothills. Moreover, people in around 25 villages with a
significant population are living at the outskirts of the park with over a
hundred thousand domestic animals.

The increasing population pressures, cutting of trees for fuel wood,

hunting of wild goats and jungle fowl and grazing of domestic animals
may lead to human animal conflicts,” he said, adding a research by an
IWMB official was underway to ascertain the prevailing scenarios.

Undue human interventions spoiled wildlife

in Margalla Hills
Islamabad : The experts speaking at an event on Saturday urged the authorities and
government institutions to control undue human interventions and constructions in the
Margalla Hills National Park to protect the habitats of wildlife.

They said that most of the efforts are focused on hills alone while the Rawal Lake and
Shakarparian area are flooded with construction and visitors. We need to control
incoming vehicles and visitors and strictly restrict change in the land-use within the
MHNP boundaries.

They urged the authorities to work according to their mandate and scope of work
without any influence, and discrimination to conserve the natural ecosystems and
habitats of the Margalla Hills National Park (MHNP). They said that communities
shall be taken on board and engaged in the wildlife and protection efforts. Stringent
implementation of laws, capacity building of communities to understand the
importance of the habitat they are living in, and participation of citizens and other
stakeholders are very important in planning and implementation of the plans for the
National Park. Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) and other public
institutions shall be strengthened with more budget, staff and with necessary
amendments in the legislative framework.
The event ‘Snapshot Wildlife Margalla Hills National Park’ was organised by the
Development Communications Network (Devcom-Pakistan) and DTN in connection
with the 10th Pakistan Mountain Festival on Saturday in collaboration with Mivida
Pakistan and Pakistan Wildlife Foundation (PWF).

The Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) chairperson Rina Saeed Khan
was the guest of honour on the occasion.

The speakers included former Deputy Director General WWF Pakistan and
biodiversity expert Dr. EJaz Ahmed, Executive Director Devcom-Pakistan Munir
Ahmed, former Director National Council of Conservation for Wildlife (NCCW)
Umeed Khalid, Dr Muhammad Rafi, and Vice Chairman PWF Safwan Shahab
Ahmed. The young wildlife photographer Abdul Hadi gave a pictorial presentation of
the MHNP wildlife. The young conservationists who spoke on the occasion included
Minahil Safwan, Sana, and Shaaref Munir.

IWMB chairperson Rina Saeed Khan said Rs1.8 billion PC-I has been submitted to
the Ministry of Climate Change for approval. The funding will help strengthen the
IWMB while the new initiatives in the pipeline include conversion of the zoo to a
wildlife conservation centre, developing and maintaining the trails in the MHNP,
wildlife rescue service, and a centre for the National Park services. She said IWMB
was established under the instructions of Islamabad High Court in 2005 since then it
lacked funds and staff. Hopefully, it will come up as a strong institution in the near
future. All stakeholders and communities living within the park would be taken on
board for all the initiatives planned in the MHNP.

Devcom-Pakistan Executive Director Munir Ahmed said undue human interventions

in the national park is the result of the failure of the government authorities that could
not ensure the implementation of its legal framework. Mafias are ruling over the
National Park without any hesitation and hindrance. There is no check and control
over the change of land-use.

Even the CDA has given blank chit to the many businesses to unduly expand and
come up with eye-soaring construction of hotels, restaurants and houses. Heavy street
lights, massive traffic and no system of sewage and solid waste management are the
main challenges which are being ignored by the government institutions.
Dr Ejaz Ahmed said we mainly focus on the hills while the Rawal Lake and
Shakarparian shall also be looked after. These areas are heavily encroached by the
government and private constructions. The cultural centres attract a huge number of
visitors and the stress causes the extinction of biodiversity and wildlife habitats.

Umeed Khalid suggested a close collaboration between Islamabad and Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa government on the conservation efforts for wildlife and biodiversity
being interlinked mountain habitats.

The Margalla Hills were transferred to the CDA and were given the status of a wildlife
sanctuary in 1960

Private settlements, quarries, construction of roads, water contamination and

introduction of exotic plant species are some of the factors affecting biodiversity
in Margalla Hills National Park (MHNP).

“Illegal construction and encroachments by individuals and private housing societies,

quarries and cutting of trees are not only disturbing the ecological system, but also
robbing MHNP of its natural beauty,” Climate Change Ministry Biodiversity Director
Naeem Ashraf Raja told The Express Tribune.

The Margalla Hills were transferred to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and
were given the status of a wildlife sanctuary in 1960, and was designated as a National
Park in 1980 under Section 21 of the Islamabad Wildlife Preservation, Protection and
Management Ordinance 1979.

The Margalla Hills range spreads over 12,605 hectares. The elevation in the Margalla
Hills range varies from 600 metres in Taxila to 1,604 metres in Narias. Typical limestone
formation with southern aspect, gives rise to trees of sub-tropical broad-leaved
evergreen forest including Phuli, Kau, Grunda Snath, Chir-pine and Shah Bloot.

The range supports a diverse flora and fauna, as it is home to some 616 plant varieties,
250 bird species, and 13 kinds of reptiles. Leopards, barking deer, grey goral, rhesus
monkey, kalij pheasant, birds of prey, songbirds and monitor lizard are some of the
animals found in the national park.

Apart from biological diversity, the area is home to a number of historical and cultural
points of interest, including caves near Dhok Juri in the vicinity of Shah Allah Ditta, 450-
year-old Faqir Wali Ban of Mughal era, Maha Mura Doo near Julian and a 500-year-old
cobbled highway.

The MHNP has been divided into four environmental zones, recreational (I), wilderness
(II), intensive use (III) and cultural site zone (IV).

“The declaration of any place as a national park is meant to conserve and protect the
area but unfortunately the MHNP has become hub of recreational activities besides
becoming prone to encroachments by individuals and private housing societies,”
Assistant Inspector General (Forests) Auranzeb Awan said.

He maintained that Zone-III was under constant threat of encroachment, while trees
were being cut in Zone-IV in the Bhara Kahu area for firewood.

Though CDA has taken a stay order against illegal constructions on Margalla Hills, a
survey conducted by The Express Tribune found that construction was still being carried
out in the foothills, particularly in Zone-III in Shah Allah Ditta and adjoining areas, while
trees were being chopped for firewood by locals and lumber dealers in Bhara Kahu.

A threat to the park

Margalla Hills National Park is fast losing its charm due to
unregulated commercial activity
"I ’m extremely disappointed with Margalla Hills this time. When I came
here five years ago I was very happy. This place had certain calmness and its
natural beauty had great attraction," says Muhammad Usman, a government
servant.
The heaps of garbage and the growing commercial activity that are damaging
the picturesque Margalla Hills saddened Usman.
The Margala Hills were declared a national park in April 1980. Lack of proper
waste management and cleanliness gives Margalla Hills an ugly look and is
also damaging the natural habitat of the precious wildlife in the area.
Five years back there was only one restaurant in the area, Usman recalls.
"Now there are handcarts on every turn of the Margalla Road, selling cold
drinks, snacks and other items".
Over time, a large number of restaurants have opened near Pir Sohawa. The
handcarts and the restaurants do not have any waste management system.
Visitors throw plastic bottles and other waste in the forest area and pollute the
hills.
Commercial activities on Margalla Hills without any proper planning are also
disturbing the wildlife. "Injured monkeys beaten by visitors are seen in the
hills," says Mome Saleem, an environmentalist.
"A large number of species come to this national park and when they eat
plastic in any form it affects them. The plastic affects the seeds bank and
disturbs the soil of the forest," she says.
Margalla Hills National Park (MHNP) covers approximately 17,386 hectares
(67.13sq/m). Tilla Charouni which is 1604m high is the tallest peak in the
national park, declared so on April 27, 1980 under Section 21(1) of the
Islamabad Wildlife (protection, conservation and management) Ordinance,
1979 and also affirmed as a wildlife sanctuary.
This status strictly prohibits any commercial activity and settlement in the
area but a chain of hotels, mushrooming in this diverse park, is destroying the
whole environment.
Hundreds of cars travel on the winding road every day towards restaurants
located in the park, creating pollution and intruding in the delicate habitat of
wildlife at MHNP.
Umer Farooq, who has a tea stall near Pir Sohawa, says, "There was so much
rush on the eve of Eid ul Fitr that it took more than four to five hours to reach
the park from Islamabad," he says.
Margalla Hills are also the boundary line between the Federal Capital,
Islamabad and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. One side of the Margalla Hills falls
in District Haripur of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while the other side is Islamabad.
This factor also affects the regulation of the commercial activities on this
national park.
"Only two restaurants located near Daman-e-Koh are located in the CDA’s
jurisdiction while the rest of the handcarts and restaurants are located in
District Haripur," says Safdar Shah, Director Public Relations at Capital
Development Authority. However, all the environmental issues come under
the ambit of the Directorate of Environment of Metropolitan Corporation
Islamabad.
When contacted, Assistant Director Environment Altaf Hussain admitted that
hotelling and all other commercial activities on and around Margalla Hills are
in violation of National Park Law but unfortunately the competent authority
does not take into consideration suggestions or recommendations of the
Directorate of Environment before issuing trade licence to any hotel or
handcart in the area.
"Sewerage water of the restaurants has reached Saidpur model village passing
through the Margalla Hills," Hussain says. "Also, lighting and music in these
restaurants is also disturbing the delicate habitat of wildlife. From the point of
view of environment, all these commercial activities are illegal."
Sub-Divisional Forest Officer of Haripur Asif Mehmood says that locals have
constructed hotels on their own land and do not need any licence for it.
"However, I have written multiple letters to the higher authorities to take
measures to stop the cutting of trees in this area but have not received any
reply," he says.
Asif maintains that if the cutting of trees continues in the same manner, the
area will become residential and commercial area in the near future.
Farzana Altaf Shah, Director General of Federal Environment Protection
Agency (EPA), says that the restaurants claim that they have proper waste
management system, however EPA has received complaints about pollution
in Margalla National Park and will take action as per law, she maintains.