Hunting a Markhor @ 55,000 pounds in Pak!

Hunting a Markhor @ 55,000 pounds in Pak!
Islamabad | March 31, 2006 1:13:45 PM IST

It takes a whopping 55,000 pounds (approximately 44 lakh Pakistani rupees) to acquire a Markhor hunting licence in Pakistan, and subsequently possess the killed animal as a trophy!

Every year the Pakistan government issues a few licences to the passionate hunters from across the world. This year it had issued four licences. The revenue generated by auctioning the Markhor hunting licences is on the welfare of local communities.

One of the four passionate hunters who had acquired this year's hunting licence shot down the animal with a gun after it escaped his arrows in Chitral. It took him more than a week to have his trophy!

According to the Daily Times, the Singaporean hunter Wwayne Lau stayed in the Chitral district for one week in February to hunt a Markhor, but in vain. But, while returning in March, he finally managed to kill one in the village of Gahraite.

"I tried to kill it with arrows, but it escaped into the terrain. I had to bring the animal down with a gun. Chitral's challenging terrain provided me with a unique hunting experience," the paper quoted Lau as saying.

Though the law protects Markhor in Pakistan, but those who are mature and have past the breeding age are allowed to be hunted in a community-based trophy-hunting programme, while the young are spared.

According to World Wildlife Fund (WWF) estimates, there are 1200-1400 Markhors in Chitral District alone.

Annually, the NWFP government issues licenses for trophy hunting of the animal. "This is a community-based trophy hunting programme," said Chitral's WWF Park Planner Masood Arshad, adding that 80 percent of the revenue generated from hunting licenses was spent on the welfare of local communities.

Pakistan's WWF conservation advisor Richard Garsteng said trophy-hunting of Markhor had stopped poaching of endangered species. "Some people wrongly think that hunting causes the extinction of endangered species. Trophy hunting actually makes these animals more prolific, as those who are mature and past the breeding age are killed, while the young are spared," he said. (ANI)

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