Wildlife Dept sells four hunting permits for Markhors

PESHAWAR: The NWFP Wildlife Department has sold four permits for hunting of Markhors, a wild goat with beautiful spiraled horns, to foreign hunters at a cost of $ 1,76,000.

The sale of hunting permits were made under the Trophy Hunting Scheme of the department launched with the objective to generate funds for economic uplift of the communities involved in protection of the rare animal, said Chief Conservator Wildlife NWFP, Dr Mumtaz Malik.

The sale of hunting permit at $ 44,000 each is the record highest bid ever received by the department, he said. Each year permits for hunting of three to four animals are sold and money obtained thus is mostly distributed among communities protecting the animals in Chitral and Kohistan district, Dr Mumtaz Malik said.

He said 80 per cent of the total amount of the trophy hunting was distributed among communities and remaining 20 per cent went into national exchequer. Bids for the hunting permits were sought by the department in November 2004 through advertisements floated in the press.

In order to attract maximum number of people and advertise biding internationally, the bidding offer had also been notified in all the leading newspapers of English and Urdu languages and websites of international organisations dealing with wildlife, the chief conservator said.

In Chitral, one permit is for Gehrait Conservancy, two for Toos Shah conservancy and in Kohistan district, hunting of one Markhor is allowed in Kaigah Nanah conservancy. About the hunters, he said, one is arriving on March 9 and other will also arrive soon.

This one will need to remain in the unfulfilled dreams category!

Mike

I think I would happily give my left arm to hunt Markhor.....but no one will pay me that much for it.

Best,

JohnTheGreek