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Trophy hunting rakes Rs 21m for Sindh Wildlife Department

By Amar Guriro

KARACHI: Hunters chasing Ibex and Urail (wild sheep) paid Rs 21 million in official fees to the Sindh Wildlife Department over the last three years and officials are planning on increasing the maximum number of animals for trophy hunting this year.

“The federal environmental ministry allowed trophy hunting in Sindh in 2005 and since then, the Sindh wildlife department has earned Rs 21 million from trophy hunting, of which 80 percent has been spent on the conservation of the hunting area, welfare of the local community, protection of animals and on efforts to stop illegal wood cutting in the hunting area,” said Sindh Wildlife Conservator Ghulam Rasool Channa.

After getting permission from the federal environmental ministry in 2005, the Sindh wildlife invited bids for trophy hunting for 10 Ibex in the protected game reserves of Surjan, Sumbak, Eri and Hothianao, near Kirthar National Park, district Jamshoro and 3 Urial (wild sheep) in the non-protected areas of Hilalo and Pachran, district Jamshoro for the year 2005-06. The official fee for Ibex hunting was set at US$ 2,500 and for Urail, it was set at US$ 4,000. “Unexpectedly, we received a hot response from international hunters and the final bid for Ibex went to US$ 4,000, while the bid for Urail went to a high price of US$ 20,000,” said Channa. The department thus collected US$ 40,000 in official fees for trophy hunting of Ibex and US$ 60,000 for trophy hunting of Urial, which amounts to a total of Rs 8.5 million.

In 2006-07, the number of the animals for trophy hunting remained the same and the department collected an amount of Rs 5.9 million, but after finding a keen interest among international hunters, the wildlife department requested the federal environmental ministry to raise the number of trophy animals allowed for hunting and the number of Urail auctioned for hunting rights was raised by 5. The department collected Rs 6.6 million in 2007-08.

Trophy hunting is a type of hunting in which animals are hunted and their skin is scanned for stuffing. The stuffed animal body and any other part is known as a trophy. Hunters love to preserve hunted animals by converting the animal’s body into a trophy. Ibex trophy hunting is allowed for 35 inches, that is, any Ibex that has horns longer than 35 inches can be legally hunted and for Urail the size allowed is above 18 inches.

In Sindh, this has been the first experience ever of trophy hunting but trophy hunting has been going on for several years in other provinces. For the last several years, Markhor hunting in Jhelum, Punjab, Urail and and Ibex hunting in the Suleman Mountains of Balochistan and Himalayan Ibex hunting in NWFP has been very common.

“Several other sites in Sindh have potential for trophy hunting. This includes the Thar Desert, a potential site for hunting of the Chinkara deer, which can bring a large revenue for the department,” said Channa.

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