Destruction of Red-Listed Species of Flora and Fauna. Mount Boz-Boltok
Mount Boz-Boltok, from Kyrgyz, means "gray elevation," is located ten kilometers from Bishkek. Mining companies continue to destroy the relic area despite environmental protection laws, the conclusions of a special commission, proven facts of violations, and the president's decree granting Mount Boz-Boltok the status of an archaeological and historical reserve.
The current situation on Mount Boz-Tolok requires immediate intervention; otherwise, Kyrgyzstan will lose not only a unique historical monument but also a deposit and habitats for several rare species of plants and animals.
In the spring of last year, 2022, employees of the Institute of Biology of the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic, botanist, senior researcher, and candidate of biological sciences Adilet Usupbaev and zoologist senior researcher Dmitry Milko, as part of a special commission from the Ministry of Natural Resources, Ecology, and Technical Supervision of the Kyrgyz Republic, conducted a search for populations of species of plants and animals listed in the Red Book of the Kyrgyz Republic in the southern part of Mount Boz-Boltok, where residents of the Baytik rural district opposed the expansion of sand and gravel extraction quarries.
Local residents complain that due to the expanding quarries, they now have nowhere to graze their livestock. Pasture lands have turned into huge pits and cliffs, where dozens of excavators and dump trucks operate.
Due to the constantly raised dust and emissions from brick factories, villagers suffer from allergies and respiratory diseases. Next to Mount Boz-Boltok are ten populated areas: Orok, Zhal, Sarban, Bash-Karasuu, Baytik, Archaly, Kairma, Baygeldi, Chon Aryk, and Zarechnoe.
In recent years, the area of the quarries has significantly increased. This happened because government structures issued licenses for subsoil use in this convenient (close to consumers) area to several dozen companies five years ago. Such a decision has already led to destructive interference in the local ecosystem. Currently, 23 companies that received licenses are extracting clay and transporting gravel from the quarries on Mount Boz-Boltok.
The conclusion of the State Ecological Expertise stated that "plants and animals listed in the Red Book are not found in the area of the exploration site; woody-shrub vegetation is virtually absent." However, experts from the Institute of Biology of the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic, during just a two-hour excursion, provided irrefutable evidence of the presence of populations of five protected species of plants and two species of animals. Greig's and Ostrovsky's tulips were found in bloom, while Kolpakovsky's tulip, Juno orchid, and Kolpakovsky's iridodictyum were already in the fruiting stage.
Representatives of the disappearing fauna were also recorded – the steppe eagle and a pair of steppe tortoises. It is noteworthy that tortoises have not been seen by biologists in this area for about 20 years(!). According to archival data, three more species of sedentary animals from the Red Book were found on Mount Boz-Boltok in the 60s-80s.
The specialists completed their task, the expert conclusion was issued, and industrial development was suspended during the work of the special commission. As it turned out, temporarily. Visiting Boz-Boltok in March of this year (10.03.2023), the same group of scientists from the Institute of Biology of the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic, supported by eco-activists from the EcoMiR Foundation, recorded that industrial development of the mountain continues at full speed.
We sincerely hope that the joint initiative of the civil society and scientists to prevent the destruction of rare plants and animals and to preserve the pristine landscape and biocenotic complex will find understanding among the state regulatory authorities.
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