CHITRAL, Sept 22, 2025: President of the Gahiret-Golen Conservation Committee, Faizur Rahman, has strongly condemned the decision of Chief Conservator Wildlife Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to shift the markhor trophy hunting quota allocated to Gahiret Golen Conservancy since 1998 to Chitral Gol National Park for the 2025-26 season.
Speaking at a press conference at Chitral Press Club, he cautioned that if the controversial decision was not immediately reversed, all office-bearers of the village conservation committees would be left with no option but to tender their resignations, which in turn would seriously undermine community-based conservation initiatives that have been ongoing for decades.
He emphasized that Gahiret Golen today supports a large population of markhor solely due to the tireless and consistent efforts of the local people since the late 1990s. However, this year, he added, the community’s years of hard work have been disregarded by what he termed an arbitrary and unlawful decision of the wildlife department.
Mr. Rahman underlined that trophy hunting is explicitly prohibited in any national park under the prevailing laws, yet the wildlife department has allocated the hunting permit to Chitral Gol National Park under the pretext of its buffer zone, Singoor Gol.
He stressed that Singoor has never been a habitat of markhor and alleged that wildlife officials were deliberately driving animals out of the park’s core zone into Singoor Gol in order to conduct trophy hunts there.
He warned that such unlawful and exploitative practices would completely erode the achievements of over 40 years of community-led conservation and could once again push the population of the endangered markhor towards extinction if corrective measures were not taken immediately.
