Hunting tournament set for February

Wildlife Department has already received over 300 applications for participation.

MULTAN: The Punjab Wildlife Department will be organising a Trophy Hunting fair in the Pirowal forest in Khanewal with over three hundred hunters set to participate. Wildlife assistant director Mian Mohammad Abbas said that the trophy hunting programme would be held in February. “The department organised a similar programme in 2008 which met with tremendous success,” Abbas said on Monday evening.

The assistant director said that hunters from across the country would hunt blackbuck, hog deer (Parra), spotted deer and other kinds of game in the Pirowal forest. “Surplus deer from different parks will be taken and released in the forest for hunting purposes”, he said, adding that only male and completely mature deer would be released for the tournament.

Abbas said that nearly 100 deer would be released in the Pirowal forest by the beginning of February. “The Pirowal forest spans across nearly 1,500 acres and is fenced from all sides,” he said, adding that each hunter would have to pay Rs20,000 to hunt large game in the tournament.

Abbas disclosed that each hunter would only be allowed to hunt one animal. “The department will advertise the programme in order to seek more applications from hunters for the hunting fair,” he said, adding that the participants will have to pay Rs5,000 for hunting five birds during the spree.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th, 2011.