Sindh government finally took notice of the deaths of peafowl in Thar due to viral epidemic, and announced to establish a mobile unit with technical staff to treat peafowl in the deserts of Thar. Conservator Sindh Wildlife Department (SWD) Hussain Bux Bhagat said his department has approved new scheme under which mobile unit would be available in Thar Desert along with technical staff to combat any viral attack on peafowl - a rare Asiatic breed of peacocks. He was addressing a dialogue on peacocks' mortality and climate change effects in Thar Desert, arranged by Friends of Indus Forum (FIF) in collaboration with WWF's Climate Change Adaptation Project and RDF. He said that the peafowl population was suffering with deadly disease known as New Castle Virus. Bhagat claimed that his department is committed to protect the Peacocks and other wildlife in the province. "We want to protect the wildlife but due to the lack of the human resources, staff and budget, we are unable to do so," he went on to justify his position. It may be worth mentioning that just in last one year viral diseases killed more than 300 peafowl in the Thar Desert after getting affected by viral epidemic several time, however, Sindh Wildlife Department continuously denied of these deaths, despite several media reports on the issue. Scattered over 22,000 square kilometres, Thar Desert of Sindh, which is located on eastern side of the province along Indian border, is supposedly the seventh biggest desert in the world and is the home of several types of the endangered mammals, reptile, Indian black cobra, deer species, birds and insects and plants. According to Sindh Wildlife Department's official data, there are about 80,000 peafowls in Thar Desert. Due to the continuous drought, illegal poaching, changing climate, reduced rainfall and increased number of diseases coupled with lack of interest by wildlife authorities, population of this beautiful bird is on the decline. "We cannot tackle any crisis situation specially the viral diseases among the wildlife species but collective efforts are needed by all stakeholders including community and civil society organisations," said Bhagat. He added that numbers of NGOs are working in Thar Desert but so far none of them have extended any support to the department to save peacocks from the virus. Vice President FIF Ali Akbar Rahmoon said that this is third consecutive year that peacock mortality is reported in Thar but no concrete measures are taken by concerned authorities. He added that government should seek international assistance to deal with the critical situation. General Secretary FIF Nasir Ali Panhwar said people of Thar are close to nature and they have emotional attachment to peacocks and other wildlife. Hence they are incredibly sensitive with regard to current mortality of peacocks. He said that forum has provided an opportunity to all stakeholders to take stock of situation and develop remedy for viral disease, which has affected the peacock population. Panhwar said that around 3,000 snakebite cases are reported in Thar annually and in this context peacock population is vital part of food web and predator for snakes. He said that peacock play an important role in healthy eco system. Journalist Sohail Sangi said that impacts of climate change on ecology of Thar are being observed as delayed monsoon is reported for last couple of years. He urged that community participation should be ensured in protecting peacocks. Ashfaque Soomro of RDF said that his organisation would extend full support to the Sindh wildlife department to effectively deal peacock disease. He said vaccination to prevent further mortality is imperative. Altaf Sheikh of WWF said that immune system of peacock becomes weak in summer, and due to delayed rain poultry is affected first followed by peacocks from new castle virus. He called for joint strategy involving poultry department and other stakeholders to combat disease. Nadia Bajwa of WWF said that it would be too early to link any incident with climate change as in Pakistan it is still at nascent stage.