As many as 76 out of 8040 patients suffering from dengue fever have lost their lives since 2005 in Pakistan, according to government sources, said Dr. Imtiaz Ahmad from Karachi University.

He was addressing the participants of 3-days international zoological congress in his presentation on “dengue fever in Karachi it’s devastations and management in the insecticide free environment”. Pointing out the symptoms of the disease, he told that Dengue Fever (DF) is usually very fatal and death encounters and very serious in children and in patients of old age adding that a blood runs from different parts of the body, sudden decrease of blood pressure, and if the patient does not get proper treatment at this stage.

While highlighting the breading areas of this virus, Dr. Imtiaz told that the mosquito having dengue virus used to grow in contaminated and clean-static water. Dr. Imtiaz Ahmad suggested the masses to control seepage, use schedule water delivery to avoid excess watering, reduce or eliminate vegetation and debris in ditches and other water containment structures, eliminate mosquito habitats in impoundments and fill or drain water-holding areas, and fill or deepen shallow areas preferred by mosquito larvae.

He told that nature has its own checks on this dangerous virus as fish, dragonfly nymphs and diving beetles are proved to be the natural predators of mosquito larvae, while dragonflies, birds, bats and lizard feed on adults. The mosquito-eating fish Gambusia (closely related to guppies) can be reared in large numbers and released in mosquito breeding sites. Gambusia feed on many kinds of insect larvae, but prefer wrigglers and other top feeders. He urged the government as well as civil society to mobilize the masses and sensitize about the growing threat and hold advocacy meetings in this regards. He also recommended launching the clean-up campaigns and environmental sanitation drives.

In another presentation, Dr. M. Nasim Sadiqi enlightened the gathering about the consequences of climate change and said that the global temperature increased by 0.6ºC over the last century and has been forecasted that it will increase 1.4-5.8ºC by the end of present century while from the last glacial period to present the increase was only 5ºC. He told that global consensus is growing as climate change is human kind’s greatest threat in modern times & is likely to have profound consequences for socio-economic sectors such as food production, health, energy consumption & natural resource management.

He pointed out the natural factors of climate change and said that glaciations, ocean variability, hysteresis, effects of CO2 on climate change, plate tectonics, solar variation, orbital variation and volcanism. In conclusion he said that variations in Earth’s Orbital Characteristics, atmospheric CO2 variations, volcanic eruptions, and variation in solar output are primarily responsible for climate change on earth. He pointed out that carbon dioxide was the main cause of climate change which is being produced by fossils, fuel, petrol, gas & coal, deforestation. He told that since 1750 amount of CO2 in the atmosphere increased by 35% and present concentration is higher any time in at least 650,000 years. It grew about 80% between 1970 & 2004 and may rise to 3.6ºC upto 2050.

Due to deforestation there is soil erosion leading to desertification, with only 4.0% cover of forest 1.2m hectare land has suffered soil erosion since last decade of previous century, due to rise in water level 4.2 m hectare land has suffered from water logging & salinity & 0.02m hectare has become alkaline, due to this 60% land is under the threat of desertification, due to soil erosion the amount of silt & sand load in water is highest in the world.

It is required on urgent basis to protect against destructive climate impact on water resources agriculture, food security.
He also highlighted marginal zones & ecological systems. He stressed the need to alter cropping pattern, to introduce drought & heat resistant crops, to enhance national food storage capacity, to introduce alternate feed sources for livestock, to extend subsides, microcredits & insurance faculties to small farmers. Also diversify their livelihood options.

Giving suggesting he said it is need to introduce water harvesting & conservation schemes, to waste water recycling, to improve irrigation technology, to promote compost organic fertilizer, to reduce water requirement in agriculture, to construct small & medium size dam to increase water storage capacity & capture water from flash flood, to promote forestation & reforestation to increase water catchment area, to  promote judious use of water, to apply water metering & budgeting system, to legislation to conserve & to protect existing water,  to monitor ground & surface water sources. 

In a presentation, Dr Khalid Mahmood from the Department of Agriculture Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture, Ajk University, Rawalakot Campus, spoke about agroecological bases of ecological engineering for pest management.He said world population is rapidly increasing and three billion humans are malnourished (WHO). He highlighted that malnourished peoples are more susceptible to array of diseases and more than quarter-million peoples are added to world population each day. More than 40% food is being lost annually by insect pest, plant pathogens and weeds, he said adding that .More than 3 billion Kg pesticides are applied to crops annually worldwide.

He gave the reasons for food losses. Giving reasons, he threw light on reduction of crop rotations, planting of some crop varieties more susceptible to insect pests & diseases, the destruction of natural enemies, elimination of hedgerow & shelterbelts, increase in monoculture, reduced crop diversity, and increased pesticide and herbicide & fertilizers use.