Gilgit-Baltistan Wildlife Department seeks bids for hunting license
Our Correspondent
Gilgit, December 10: The Gilgit-Baltistan Wildlife Department has asked national and international Trophy hunters to submit bids for auctioning of licenses. According to a letter sent to the press, 72 hunting licenses/permits will be auctioned for the year 2013. The highest number of permits will be sold for hunting of Himalayan Ibex, 60, followed by 8 licenses for Blue Sheep and 4 licenses for Astorie Markhor, one of the rarest species.
Each permit for hunting of an Astori Ibax will be sold for USD 40,000, for Blue Sheep the rate for each permit has been fixed at USD 6,250, while for Himalayan Ibex the price of each permit has been fixed at USD 2,500. Pakistani nationals can pay PKR 100,000 per permit for hunting Himalayan Ibex.
The auction will take place on 20th December at 10am, at the office of Secretary Forest, Wildlife and Environment, located on River Road in Gilgit.
The revenue earned through trophy hunting is shared by the government and the people, 20:80 respectively, of the village where the hunting takes place.
It seems to send out a clear message that trophy hunting is Islamic, and well rooted in the norms of this region. The hunters are invited to wipe out what ever remains of the wildlife in the area as they are already facing extinction, as any respected environmental organisation will attest, rather than attracting the lovers of wildlife who would come to the region again and again. Once they are gone, like your forests of priceless species of trees, the hunters are gone, the wildlife watchers, scientists and enthusiasts are gone, the organisations that assisted the wildlife activities are gone, so called ‘eco tourism is gone, what will be next on the cards? Will you hunt your females and children too? Wildlife is the goose that lays the golden egg and there is an industry that revolves around it, providing jobs, bringing tourists to the guides, hotels, educational oportunities and also putting the region on the world map for priceless, exotic species to be found nowhere else and there are tourists who would die to see them.
The Chitralis came around, and want their region to flourish unlike yourselves. Clearly, you have not been reading articles on global warming and the need to preserve the ecosystems and the biodiversity. Greed, opportunism, and entrenched corruption can be percieved behind this advert.
Trophy Hunting should be banned in GB as the Hunting taking place without scientific data means the iggorant community watchers and wildlife watchers counts the animals not sure whether the animal is 41″ or not.. secondly we are lacking data on life span and recruitment rate of these animals if we are unaware how many of fawns actually survive to their adulthood… in these condition trophy hunting is totally ileagle here in Pakistan
The causes of your social and financial problems lie elsewhere and not with the animals that are being hunted mercilessly in own environments which are being encroached and disappearing fast. Therefore, hunting them down will not make these problems go away. There is a population explosion which went unchecked for decades all over Pakistan, for starters. The health service had been negilgent in alerting you and implementing mandatory family planning. There is also rampant corruption and break down of the law and order system in your region. All of these and other related problems need to be tackled. The stress on your region is immense as more and more is being taken out while the input is less.
Hunting is preserve of idle, (corrupt) rich and your Wildlife Dept is causing mischief by inviting the hunters, both foreign and Pakistani to hunt down rare, exotic and very expensive wildlife, and they will leave, once their egos are satisfied, but leaving the environment bereft of its gems. The wildlife in your area is facing extinction as the number of species is beyond recovery.
Pakistan is a cheap country & hunting ground for Arabs… They are the one, who buy these licenses and kill these innocent animals… And they are the one… who also create problem in Af-pak area…But somehow we keep on loving them…