A Hunt For the Punjab Urial

Game Hunted: The Punjab Urial (Ovis vignei punjabiensis)

Dates: 02/25/2011 through 03/02/2011

Area Hunted: Kalabagh game reserve, Punjab, Pakistan

I have hunted for the Punjab Urial many times but never had an opportunity to hunt in the Kalabagh reserve, and during those previous hunts in the “good old days” 25-30 years ago I saw many young Urial but never saw a mature animal that I wanted to shoot.

In December I received an invitation from Nawabzada Malik Amad Khan, whose great grandfather had established the Kalabagh game reserve (KGR) in the early 1930’s. It is located about 25km south east of the town of kalabagh, in Jaba masan valley, Mianwali district, Punjab province in a massif that forms the most westerly extension of the salt mountain range. For many generations, this land has been the private property of the Nawab of Kalabagh (The ruling Family of the area prior to the formation of Pakistan) and holds the largest and the best protected unfenced population of the Punjab Urial in world.

I did not need a lot of time to make up my mind, this area is very safe and under the direct control of the Malik family, patrolled by their armed game guards, the nearest Taliban are 100 miles away, so I booked my flight and arrived in Lahore, Pakistan on 02/21/2011.

My parents live in Lahore, so I spent a few days with them and also visited the Lahore fort built a 1000 years ago and expanded by the Mughals.

My parents house

Maharaja Ranjit Singh's Tomb in Lahore, he was founder of the Sikh kingdom

Gate of the Lahore Fort

Wall of the Fort

Inside the Fort

Inside the Fort

We drove to Kalabagh on 02/25/2011 and stayed at Malik Amad’s guest house overnight, prior to the hunt. The main guesthouse is located on the bank of the Indus river it was a rest house built by the British about a hundred years ago and has a huge banyan tree in the yard estimated to be 800 to 900 hundred years old. This guest house has housed everyone from the Shah of Iran to the Royalty of England.

View of the Guest House from the Indus River

You can see the water marks on the guest house walls from the recent floods

Marker in the yard indicating levels of prior floods

The Banyan tree

View of the river Indus and the old bridge from the guest house

Malik Amad's Stables

Ramparts and gate of the Nawabs residence built by Malik Amad's grandfater

The main guest house was closed for repairs after surviving one of the worst floods in decades, so we stayed in a side guest house that had just been repaired.

The hunting area is a 45 min. drive and we arrived there before sunrise. There is a nice hunting lodge with European mounts of Urial and Chinkara (Indian gazelle) on the walls.

Hunting Lodge

Hunting lodge

The name Salt Range, is given to the hill system situated in the Northern Punjab, in
Jhelum, Chakwal, Khushab and Mianwali Districts. It was so named in 1808 by Elphinston, a British Envoy, when he observed the extraction of salt in the area. The salt deposits of the area were deposited as a result of the evaporation of Tethys Sea and formation of Indus plains from collision of Indian plate with Asian plate resulting from continental drift.

The Kalabagh reserve is an unspoiled paradise, with abundant and well managed game population of Punjab Urial and Chinkara as well as a multitude of small game and birds including the grey francolin, Chukar, See-see Partridge and Quail (during migration season).

Unfortunately after the rut (November/December) the Urial population suffered an epidemic of Sarcoptic Mange most likely transmitted by contact with domestic animals causing a huge die off affecting mostly mature males.

I had four game guards with me armed with AK 47’s; each one of them carried a Swarovski binocular.

In the field with the Game guards

Game guards glassing for Urial

I was hoping for a 30 inch trophy but the recent epidemic had decimated the older male population and we saw a few skeletons of grand trophy males during my stay there.

I ultimately managed to shoot a respectable 26 inch male with a broomed right horn. He also had signs of the Sarcoptic Mange but had survived and was recovering, so the cape was not in its prime, but I had no complaints, after many years I had my trophy Punjab Urial.

The Maliks Staff at the hunting lodge

A group of Urial that were raised by the staff of the hunting lodge, they roam free but will come up to the lodge

Aziz

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