Poaching goes unchecked: two more markhors hunted in Chitral

CHITRAL, Aug 25: The police on Sunday night booked two persons for poaching two Kashmiri markhors in the Toshi conservancy near here on Friday. Mohammad Akbar Khan, Abdul Hakim Khan and Darvesh Khan of Seen village filed a complaint with the police stating that their villagers Tufail Mohammad and Sardar Khan had allegedly hunted two markhors in the conservancy. They stated that the poachers brandished their automatic rifles on the community watchers and threatened to shoot them down if they tried to intercept them and fled from the scene along with the carcasses. The complaints have also stated that the poaching of two markhors had cost the local community a loss of 20 million rupees as the trophy hunting permit fee of each markhor was 10 million rupees last year. It was also stated in the application that a number of other villagers were also witness to the incident of brawl between the watchers and the poachers. An official in the Chitral police station said the poachers had been booked under section 506 of PPC and 8(2) and 16 (2) of Wildlife Act. Hasantud Din alias Shahzada Gul, general secretary of Al-Burhan Conservation Society of the area, said when he was informed about the poaching he rushed to the conservancy in search of the poachers. He said that he found some of the remains including blood and other excreted material buried in the site while the poachers did not return to their homes throughout the night as the community workers were waiting near their homes. He said that the hunted markhors were female which meant double loss as the breeding season had passed just two months ago and the death of female could lead to the death of their unborn markhors. The department of wildlife did not take any step against the poachers during the two days who had the powers vested in its officers to book the poachers under the wild life act. Incidentally, the provincial minister of environment, Haji Abrar was on his visit to Chitral and had proceeded to conservancy area and viewed the markhors from the markhor point. It may be recalled that the chief justice of Peshawar High Court had taken a suo motu notice of the poaching of a markhor in Chitral Gol National Park in February and warned the wildlife department high-ups to take concrete steps to check the national animal (markhor) from being hunted illegally.–Zahiruddin]]>