'Life in Cholistan' expo: Paintings depicting charms, miseries of the desert exhibited

Over a dozen selected paintings entitled 'Life in Cholistan' depicting the charms and miseries of the desert communities were put on display at the Devcom Lounge on Wednesday. The exhibition is one of the three outcomes of the First Pakistan Desertcon that was organised by the Development Communications Network (Devcom-Pakistan), WWF-Pakistan and Islamia University Bahawalpur more than a week back.
The moot was technically supported by the Cholistan Development Authority, Bahawalpur Museum, Forests and Wildlife departments, Pakistan Council for Research on Water Resources (PCRWR) and Sustainable Tourism Foundation, Pakistan. The oil on canvas artwork by the university and college students hailing from Bahawalpur shows the sparking talent of a far-flung city. The maturity of compositions, treatment and use of space on the canvas reveals the potential of the students to paint the thematic sequences. The participating students include the five winners; Madiha Ajmal, Haneen Muhammad Asif, Uzma Kanwal, Shafaq Zahra and Saima Mushtaq.
Briefing about the outcome of the First Pakistan Desertcon, the Devcom-Pakistan Director Munir Ahmed said, the main outcome of the moot was an outline for the larger and inclusive development strategy for the Cholistan desert. It was the first initiative that engaged 60 students from different universities from Peshawar, Abbottabad, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Lahore, and Bahawalpur; faculty members of Islamia University Bahawalpur, development experts, government organisations and civil society and media reps altogether for a field visit and a moot.
Munir Ahmed said, the speakers at the moot had consensus that Cholistan needed integrated and inclusive development for the better future of desert and its communities to combat the impact of climate change. Five thematic working groups had three-day field visit to find out the factual stories of grassroots miseries and hardcore realities of the desert communities in the fields of agriculture and livestock, water, biodiversity, ecotourism and culture.
A large piece of Cholistan is given to Hobara Foundation being run by the UAE employees. It is the hunting field for the Arabs. Flora and Fauna is not categorised properly, and their habitat is disturbed by the external elements and human interventions. Water development and conservation strategies are absent. The government agencies are just making the common mistakes. The cultural values are diminishing and the heritage sites are unattended. The traditional housing called gopa is being replaced by the mud/clay houses. Population is migrating to nearby towns hence the total population around Derawar Fort is just 500 houses including 150 of the Hindus. There is a lot of potential for the ecotourism but the potential is yet to harness.
The declaration of the moot comprises the recommendations of the working groups. It suggests establishing of a larger all-stakeholders forum to initiate an integrated sustainable development strategy for the Cholistan desert. One observation of the working group on agriculture reveals that large piece of desert land has been occupied by the land grabbers and they are being facilitated by the government functionaries with water and other agricultural inputs. The declaration suggests to promote indigenous groups for the cultivation of desert land instead of external elements. They should be given agricultural inputs on subsidised rate to make their efforts more sustainable.-PR