Muhammad Nasir prepares a small order of lizard oil for a customer for Rs. 300 ($1.7) at Rawalpindi city's Raja Bazar marketplace on Feb. 15, 2022. Photo: Rimal Farrukh
Demand for the oil is high in Pakistan, where Viagra is banned and social taboos prevent many from seeking out medical treatment for erectile dysfunction. Efforts to register Viagra were cut short by objecting legal and religious affairs ministries that said it was against the cultural values of the country. Although traditional recipes for the oils have been passed down from generations, the ban offers healers and vendors fertile space to capitalise on very real needs. In Pakistan, a hierarchical supply chain made up of poachers, sellers and healers profit from men desperate for hard solutions. Aside from male impotence, healers and sellers claim that their concoctions can also be used for penis enlargement, male infertility and joint pain. “Almost 60 percent of my patients have wrongly tried such quack medications,” Islamabad-based urologist Dr. Asim Khan told VICE World News.“Almost 60 percent of my patients have wrongly tried such quack medications,” Islamabad-based urologist Dr. Asim Khan told VICE World News.
Lizard oil seller Muhammad Nasir sits next to his ingredients for the oil which included Indian-spiny tailed lizards, a protected species. Photo: Photo: Rimal Farrukh
According to sex therapist and clinical psychologist Tahira Rubab, many men are overcome with anxieties about perceived emasculation when they inadequate under society’s idea of male sexual prowess.The desperation and demand for performance enhancement support is seen across socio-economic classes and literacy levels.
Spiny-tailed lizards which are used to make the oils are classified as “vulnerable” or threatened with global extinction in the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species. The animals are immobile as their backs have been broken to prevent them from escaping during capture. Photo: Rimal Farrukh
With drug regulators and police doing little to disrupt the market, Pakistan’s wildlife authorities seem to be the only ones stepping in. “Police do not bother us at all. It is only the wildlife department that goes after us when we catch the lizards,” said Nasir who, along with selling the oils, also hunts lizards with his brother. “I have gotten fined by them on multiple occasions, but I cannot stop because this is my livelihood.” Nasir then produces a Rs. 10,000 ($56) receipt fine from the Punjab Wildlife Department from his wallet. Captured lizards are supplied across the country most commonly in the Punjab province, which wildlife officials call the “hub” of the sanda oil trade. Across five raids conducted as of October of last year, wildlife officials recovered around 978 lizards from poachers from the Sindh province. In 2020, around 2,500 lizards were recovered from the Karachi and Thatta city suburbs in Sindh. Unfortunately, once the lizard's backs have been broken after capture, they have little chance of surviving in the wild. “Until and unless the demand for the oils subsides, the poaching situation will continue to persist,” Sindh Wildlife Department conservator Javed Ahmed Maher told VICE World News. “Most of the poachers hail from extremely poor nomadic communities. It is unfortunate that they haven't been provided with better avenues for their economic betterment, and that they are out here catching these helpless innocent creatures.”Follow Rimal Farrukh on Twitter.“Until and unless the demand for the oils subsides, the poaching situation will continue to persist,” Sindh Wildlife Department conservator Javed Ahmed Maher told VICE World News.
