Food shortage, diseases, mine blasts and illegal hunting are major reasons why the national animal is fast becoming extinct in Chitral. PHOTO CREDIT: GOVERNMENT COLLEGE UNIVERSITY, LAHORE
Buzarg Muhammad, an officer of Chitral Goul National Park, said the hunters killed the markhor inside the park, loaded it onto a pickup vehicle and escaped. He added the dead markhor was worth around Rs9.5 million
Muhammad said that around 8:00pm, one of the park’s guards stopped a pickup vehicle carrying a beheaded markhor 10 kilometres west of Chitral city. Despite several threats from the vehicle’s occupants, the guard managed to retrieve the animal’s head while the hunters escaped with the body.
“They wore masks and spoke in Urdu instead of the local language,” the guard told Chitral city police while registering an FIR. He added the hunters seemed to be government officials because they threatened him of dire consequences for taking the markhor’s head.
Muhammad said the markhor was shot at low altitude as it descended from the mountains, adding the annual trophy hunting competition in Chitral and Gilgit-Baltistan had recently concluded.
Unaware of the number of markhors killed during the trophy hunt, Muhammad said only old sterile males with long antlers were marked as game in a supervised hunt, the licence fees of which can be thousands of dollars.
However, residents of Birmoghlasht blamed local wildlife officials for their negligence and claimed district forest officers had failed to protect the precious animal. They alleged government officials were involved in the illegal hunting of the animal.
Food shortage, diseases, mine blasts and illegal hunting are major reasons why the national animal is fast becoming extinct in Chitral.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 21st, 2013.
COMMENTS (26)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
Dear Badur uddin
I would still suggest you to get some information regarding trophy hunting because trophy hunting is a practice which takes place throughout the world. trophy hunting is allowed in order to generate funds which can be used to save the animals. It will take a whole page to explain to your what trophy hunting is and it takes place only when the criteria of trophy hunting is met other wise the hunting can not take place.. The animal reaches a trophy size in Chitral when it gets to the age of 8 or 10, that is the age when its starts getting old and weak and the chances of it being killed by poachers or other animals are at maximum. Now at this stage the wild life department issues licenses for its hunt and instead of it being killed and eaten up by poachers or other animals due to its age and weakness it is hunted legally after paying a good sum of money to the government of Pakistan and the society which lies under the jurisdiction where the Markhor was hunted. As far as you are talking about the horns than you should visit the local houses in chitral and you will see lots of horns there too.. Plenty of guest houses have them put out on their balcony's and these guest houses and hotels or the normal houses dont belong to any member of the Royal family of Chitral. These horns are mostly from the old times when hunting was not illegal. I think you have not talked personally to the watcher who had caught the recent hunters red handed. He personally told the police that the intelligence agency people had hunted the animal and had threatened him and he even gave the number or their vehicle and its description and that belongs to the agencies. Now as far as Siraj Ulmulk is concerned you will only find one horn in his entire huge hotel which he never liked but as it was presented by someone who is no more in this world so to respect his gift he has it put up at his hotel.. That is the only horn you will see concerning him which is a gift and one hunted at least 50 to 70 years ago. He has been fighting against hunting and cutting of forests by the timber mafia on every front and every single Chitrali knows that he has always worked for the betterment of Chitral.. At the end i would again suggest you to study on trophy "hunting" because trophy hunting is not killing its killing one and saving hundreds.. I would also suggest you to get the records of Markhors counted before the trophy hunting started compared to now. only then would you realize the difference.
Dear Ali Hunting is hunting trophy hunting is also killing, there are people in Chitral mostly form the royal family they are hunting Markhurs ,go and visit their houses and the houses of their friends in Islamabad Peshawar and in other cites the Horns of Markhor will tell you the story about this specific Markhour which recently hunted shows something else man like Sirj ul Mulk is clamming:’’ Nothing remains hidden in Chitral. The wildlife department know exactly who murdered the Markhor. ‘’ how did he knew that , he been watched by intelligence agencies for his serves to CIA and others in that very impertinent geo political area and he started propaganda against them he push the innocent people of Chitral that this is done by the intelligence agencies .
Dear Badr Uddin I think you completely lac any sort of information regarding the hunting of Markhors and you are only sharing your false knowledge regarding the Royal family.. As you dont seem to have any sort of knowledge regarding the Trophy hunting, so i would recommend that you first do some research on "what is trophy hunting" i would like to ask you to come up with any picture be it facebook or any other such media where you can see illegal Markhor Hunting.. You will find hundreds of pictures of Hunting a Markhor in Tushi, as it is a place where trophy hunting is permitted by the Government of Pakistan. Every year certain permits are given for hunting based on the Trophy size Markhor available in certain areas of Chitral. These permits are given by the Government of Pakistan after concerning the wildlife department.. People who buy the permits, usually foreigners come to Chitral and with the help of the wild life department they hunt the Markhor and they take the trophy back to their country. You named Siraj Ulmulk so let me make it clear to you that if he was not there in Chitral using his resources there would not have been a single Markhor left there.. He has always been fighting against the killing of not only Markhors but all sort of animls. Just because the foreigners who come to hunt after getting a permit from the government stay at his hotel doesnt mean that they are his friends and are hunting illegally.. Be it fortunate or unfortunate for you that his hotel is the best one so foreigners stay there while they do their trophy hunting.. At the end i would like you to come out with some proper facts rather than such baseless accusations and lies. i would also request you to take the pictures which you think are of illegal hunting to the court or police station so that they might be able to explain to you what trophy hunting is.. thank you.
Glad to see People are soo upset with the hunting of markhor in birmogh lasht may be they feel bad Or it can be Jelousy agression what ever we have the right to express Our feeling about that Lucky Markhor. This is a very crucial issue raised by chitral news but this case is only once case which came on print media i have seen people killing markhor every week .No one is there to stop them.point is how to implement laws and bring awarness among our peoples that what they are doing is not right for our beautiful chitral.We have many other issues where DEFORESTATION comes first among all issues we discussed but no body discussing about such an important problem.If we want to stay in chitral we have to control deforestation.
I appeal earnestly to the Honorable Chief Justice to issue orders to Chitral Police station to recover the vehicle without further delay. Chitral police deliberately using delaying tactics by not recovering the vehicle from the poachers.I also appeal to Honorable Chief Justice to call the legal advisor of Chitral Gol Community Development and Conservation Association on the stipulated date of hearing to know the facts of the crime.
Being a part of some institution doesn't mean you are above the law. Respect of civic laws is the foremost duty of every civilized Nation. the perpetrators should be brought to justice.
There is good news [ while bad news for some ] Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan of Peshawar High Court has taken suo motu notice as reported by http://chitraltoday.net/killing-of-markhor-phc-orders-arrest-of-poachers/ it was Chitral Today which first made public real facts. Now Shergul,Wasim and Baramush can rest assured Chief Justice will find who owned Datsun GLT 5512. All we need to do is keep on following this and share [ in public ] any information which may help catch real culprits.
MI is responsible for this. Full stop. This should come to a logical conclusion. I wonder if Shergul, Wasim and Baramush are the same person who are talking against few individuals without any logical reason, without even changing their Font sizes.
@ Mashgool Alam Yes its a double cabin pickup Datsun.. they might have changed the number by now and i dont know if they have changed the color also, but there is only ONE RED DOUBLE CABIN in chitral and that belongs to the MI... every man in the streets of Chitral knows the truth and the first statement of the watcher before it was turned and twisted....
@ali - This Red double cabin pickup is it a Datsun with registration No GLT 5512 ? We need to trace ownership of that, let the information be public.
If MI staff involvement is proven then have to find a way for ISPR to comment on this as it is quite possible General Saheb has not been briefed. They sort it internally [ let Markhor eaters pay the amount any Hunter would have paid - by not paying they are thief and I see no way ISPR can defend a common thief ] and deal with culprits the way they like else this is not going away.
There is only one Red double cabin pickup in chitral and we all know that it belongs to the military intelligence.. In the past also such incidents have taken place where the intelligence agencies were caught hunting in Chitral Gol.. They are misusing their powers and ruing the peace of chitral. Its a shame that the police along with the administration are trying to hide the poachers and are threatening the watcher to change his statement.. This should not happen and if they let go of this case, than the high ranking officials posted in Chitral will get used to such activities and sooner or later these Markhors would be no more... In winters there are only two routs leading in or out of Chitral, the lawari tunnel and the other through Afghanistan and both are guarded heavily by the Police Chitral Scouts and the Army. So unless and untill the police and the administration are involved no vehicle can escape Chitral without being noticed..
In the past, precious species like markhor used to be killed brutally without any check in Chitral. Thanks to the media, such practices have been controlled not by any corrupt governmnet official but the communities themselves. Had there been no media, the latest killing of the markhor in Chitral park would have gone unnoticed. I appeciate the work of chitraltoday.net which broke the news of the poaching by the influential people in connivance with the wildlife department http://chitraltoday.net/poachers-given-free-hand-in-chitral/. When the local media like chitraltoday.net reports such things, the national media like the Experss Tribune pick them and force the authorities to take action against the culprits.
A particular tribe has long been accused of poaching the endangered animals like markhor taking undue advantage of its connections with their masters sitting in Islamabad. They are also known for hiding things misusing the influence of their all time powerful bosses sitting in the dark power corridors. The dispute over Chitral Gol National Park is one big example, which this particular tribe claims to own. They are the king of ring and the time has come the Chitralis must to counter their ugly tricks or the day is not far they will befool them like no one else on this whole universe.
I agree with Sher Gul Khan that the poachers could not be anyone else except the Shazdagan. As the report says the illegal hunters were communicating in Urdu, which reflects that they must be the guests of these PRINCES. These people are thought to be experts in putting things under the carpets after staging such dramas. On the one hand they claim to be the saviors of Chitral, while on the other they are very good planners. Now the poor markhor was killed and after some days it will completely die down. The princes will again succeed in their masterly tricks. The people Chitral must stop speaking against a particular organization. Had this been the case, the local media must not have remained silent. They are good exploiters. This was the golden opportunity, they could have cashed in on as they are known for exploiting people for their own vested interest. I am 200 percent sure that except some heavyweight princes and a newly crowned mehter, there is no one else who could go for such a risky venture.
@Mashgool Alam: It's great that so much information is known about the criminals who killed this beautiful animal so shamelessly. The locals sell permits for hunting to allow conservation but these corrupt people want to deprive locals of their source of income. I hope authorities charge these people in the red Datsun right away.
@Awan i agreed .
Divisional forest officer of wildlife, Chitral, Mohammad Shakil, claimed that he knew the people and they would be brought to book soon.They said that five persons driving a red double-cabin datsun bearing registration No GLT 5512 were caught red-handed by the forest staff. But they escaped with the booty, threatening the forest official of dire consequences. However, during the brawl they snatched a piece of leg, head of the animal and hide from the poachers.
Mubarak Ali Shah, chief conservator Wildlife Department KP, confirmed that an inquiry had been ordered soon after the story was published and stern action will be taken against those involved in the recent poaching incident.
Action taken is: "Lodged an FIR against five unknown persons in Chitral Police Station."
Did any one asked Divisional Forest Officer about the identity of the five persons ? What more lead they need beside Number Plate of Datsun used ?
Question is what action has been taken by Chief Conservator in three days ?
Source http://chitraltoday.net/poachers-given-free-hand-in-chitral/
Humans are being hunted indiscriminately in this country, so why should animals be spared. We even allow our Arab masters to come and kill endangered species to extinction for a few dollars. What more needs to be said.
There are so many cases going on regularly. This one luckily has come to the limelight.
It is a shame that our government officials and specially Army officials who take oath to protect the constitution and thus safe guard the law of the land, are involved in such heinous acts. It is the time that they get their act together and improve the already diminishing reputation of the Army.