A quota of four markhors, eight blue sheep (pictured above) and six ibexes has been fixed this season. PHOTO
SOURCE: TVBLOGS.NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.COM
The Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) government has announced the licence fee for this year’s hunting season with Pakistan’s national animal Markhor topping the list at $70,000.
According to an official of the G-B Wildlife and Environment Department, Sajjad Haider, permits will be auctioned on November 11 in Gilgit and the hunting season will continue till April 2014. A quota of four markhors, eight blue sheep and six ibexes has been fixed this season.
The rate for hunting blue sheep is fixed at $12,000. The cost for hunting ibex varies, with international hunters having to pay $3,000 for a permit. Pakistani hunters, however, can purchase a licence for almost half that amount, Rs150,000, while the same is available for a G-B hunter at Rs60,000.
Last year, a fee of $6,250 and $2,500 (for international hunters) had been fixed for blue sheep and ibex, respectively.
Interested people have been asked to deposit $10,000 for markhor, $2,000 for blue sheep and $1,000 for ibex as guarantee prior to participation in the permit auction.
The trophy hunting programme that started in the 1990s has been going on every year in G-B. It is carried out under the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wildlife and is allowed only in the notified areas of G-B in collaboration with the concerned communities.
According to last year’s statistics, revenue generated from the trophy hunting programme in the region was $1,246,740.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) the markhor population in Pakistan has increased. Surveys last year suggested the population in all of Gilgit-Baltistan may now be as high as 1,500 animals. According to government estimates, in 1999 there were less than 1,000 markhors in the area.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 21st, 2013.
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It Is Shame On The Gilgit-baltistan Government For Selling The Permits For Killing National Animal Of Pakistan : Markror ( Killer Of Snake ) For Earning Some Dollars . Other Countries Are Working Very Hard To Save Their Wild Life For Future Generations . In My Country India , You Can not Kill Our National Bird - Peacock .I Fully Agree With My Brother S. Nasir - Mehdi's Suggestion . It A Very Good And Noble Suggestion To Dollar Hungary Rulers Of Pakistan . They Earn Lots More Money By Organising Guided Tour To See These Beautiful Animals In Their Natural Habiat . Myself And Other - Wild Life Lovers Lookinf For The Day There Is Complete Ban On Killing Markhor , Blue Sheeps And Ibex In Pakistan .
Leave poor couple of hundred animals free to live in nature. Who will look as to how many are killed- another source of making unlawful money.. Instead trips be organized for seeing these beautiful creatures created by ALL MIGHTY in wild life. In this way the government can earn more.
Dollars or rupees?
SHAME. Killing these poor animals for money?