Heat, hunters and holidays – a lethal combination

By Athena Karsera

THE GOVERNMENT is considering suggestions to postpone the August hunting season until the current heatwave subsides.

Interior Minister Dinos Michaelides and Agriculture Minister Costas Themistocleous agree that the combination of heat, hunters and droves of summer holidaymakers could prove disastrous.

Savvas Theophanous, Director of the Forestry Department, yesterday confirmed that the two Ministries had been discussing the matter, but that, as yet, no decision had been taken.

Aristos Ioannou, Senior Conservation Officer at the Forestry Department, told the Cyprus Mail that the Department had requested a postponement of the hunting season, as there is, “real danger”. Ioannou referred to several fires on Sunday, and in particular, one at the Kokomalli Forest, which is believed to have been caused by hunters’ negligence.

The Federation of Environmentalists and Ecological Organisations has repeated demands for an end to hunting during the summer months, especially since their are so many visitors to the forests during this period.

But the chairman of the Hunters’ Federation, Andreas Pantelas, says it is impossible simply to blame hunters for damage done to the countryside at a time when so many people visit the forests.

Phileleftheros yesterday reported that hunters had been disappointed by the season’s first hunt, on Sunday, with many leaving early because of the heat.

If no changes are made, the next hunt is scheduled for Sunday 23 August, by which time the weather is expected to have cooled slightly.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.