Trophy hunting likely to be put off

The Ministry of Climate Change is likely to postpone the trophy hunting programme this year, which may result in a loss of millions of dollars in foreign exchange.

According to sources, the federal government has decided to conduct a new survey to find out the numbers of markhor, Punjab urial, bharal, also called the blue sheep, and ryebucks before the trophy hunting. After the survey results come out, the trophy hunting quota will be released in the provinces.

The Ministry of Climate Change sources said that a re-survey is under consideration on some Community Based Organisations’ (CBOs) reservations and complaints regarding the exact numbers of animals offered for trophy hunting, but the final decision will be taken by the federal government.

Earlier, the quota had been issued to other provinces, including Punjab, for trophy hunting of specific animals found in these provinces.

Like in the past, the Punjab Wildlife Department was given a quota of 16 Punjab urials for trophy hunting this year too.

The auction of permits for trophy hunting is expected in the next two weeks, however, if the federal government postpones the trophy hunting, the permits will not be auctioned.

According to wildlife experts, no trophy hunting season has been fixed in the Punjab Wildlife Act, but usually from December to February (three months), hunters come to Pakistan for trophy hunting.

A permit for trophy hunting of Punjab urial was auctioned last year for $18,100 and this year also the reserve price of a permit will be the same.

According to the wildlife officials, it has also been decided to conduct trophy hunting of black buck, chinkara, para, blue cow and wild boar on the pattern of Punjab urial and an application has been sent to the Ministry of Climate Change for its permission. Only Punjab urial trophy hunting has been allowed.

A major portion of the proceeds from trophy hunting will be spent on the welfare of the local community. This money will be given to the CBOs.

Punjab Wildlife Board and Forestry and Wildlife expert Badar Munir told The Express Tribune that CBOs are playing an important role in the conservation of wildlife all over the world and for the protection of endangered wild species, currently 65 CBOs are working in Gilgit-Baltistan. “Balochistan and Sindh have a good number of CBOs, but instead of creating more CBOs in Punjab, those already functioning are being closed down.”

He said trophy hunting is being conducted by the bureaucracy in the favoured CBOs to obtain benefit from them, while the registration of CBOs in which the population of Punjab has increased the most, is not being renewed.

He said that the federal government should organise trophy hunting as soon as possible instead of delaying it and increase the quota of trophy hunting which will bring foreign exchange in the country and further improve the conservation of wildlife.