Kallar Kahar Lake and the Salt Range Wetlands Complex: A Review of Avian Diversity, Threats, and Conservation Status in the Central Asian Flyway

Amna Azeem Butt¹, Muhammad Saad¹, Zainab Hassan¹, Hammad Iqbal¹, Bilal Mustafa2

1Department of Zoology, Government College University, Lahore, Pakistan

2Department of Wildlife and Natural Resources, Tarleton State University,  Stephenville, 76402, Texas,

Corresponding author: zainab.hassan@gcu.edu.pk
Running Title: Kallar Kahar Lake and the Salt Range Wetlands Complex

Abstract: Wetlands occupy a minor amount of Pakistan’s land area but support a disproportionate share of the country’s avian life. The Kallar Kahar Lake is a brackish spring-fed lake in the Salt Range of District Chakwal in Punjab. It has a Game Reserve status within the Salt Range Wetlands Complex, but has never been designated as a Ramsar site like the nearby Uchhali Complex. This assessment brings together the published record of the lake’s bird richness, taxonomic makeup, migratory status, risks and conservation status, and considers its significance within the Central Asian Flyway, to identify where research is lacking and where management attention is needed. Searches were conducted in Google Scholar, Research Gate, PubMed, Scopus indexed sites, Zoological Society of Pakistan archive and official portals of Ramsar Convention, CMS and IUCN Red List; 23 original sources published from 1991 to 2025 matched the criteria for synthesis. The only comprehensive site-wide survey (Rais et al., 2011) recorded 86 bird species across 16 orders and 36 families, 33.72% of them water birds: 61.62% residents, 25.58% winter visitors, 8.13% summer breeding visitors and 4.65% passage migrants. Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) and Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) breed in the lake’s expanding Phragmites reedbeds. Open water shrank from roughly 220 ha to 133.5 ha between 2003 and 2009, and studies from 2022 to 2025 report substantial microplastic contamination in its water, sediment and fish. No site-wide inventory has appeared since 2011, order- and family-level counts remain untabulated, long-term monitoring is absent, and no site-specific survey confirms whether globally threatened waterfowl still use the lake. The lake is protected under the Punjab Wildlife (Protection, Preservation, Conservation and Management) Act, 1974, but carries no Ramsar status of its own. Stronger protection, a formal look at Ramsar eligibility, pollution control and standardised monitoring are recommended. Kallar Kahar Lake, however small, plays a vital role in the Salt Range Wetlands Complex and the Central Asian Flyway, and its future depends on research that is up to date.

Key words: Kallar Kahar Lake; avian diversity; Salt Range Wetlands Complex; Central Asian Flyway