Conservation model that gets the trophy.

THE only veterinary hospital of the city was swarmed by young people from a nearby village. Tears could be seen in the eyes of most of them; they had just rescued a Kashmir markhor of about four years that had been trapped on a steep cliff, at considerable risk to their own lives. During the rescue operation, the markhor had sustained injures and had been rushed to hospital, while the villagers had gathered there out of concern for the animal's health.

Such a high degree of their attachment to the animal's welfare and zeal for conservation of wildlife can only be attributed to the provision of markhors' trophy hunting, which brings them a heavy dividend in the shape of permit fee. Once declared as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the wild goat is no longer threatened with extinction in Chitral, where its population has increased sufficiently - for which credit goes to the local community. The population of the impressive animal with iconic corkscrew horns had dropped to below a hundred in Chitral in the 1970s and it faced total annihilation due to the ruthless and unchecked poaching despite the presence of a full-fledged department for its preservation.

In such a grim situation, Dr Mumtaz Malik, the then divisional forest officer of the wildlife department (who later retired as the chief conservator), came up with the concept of Village Conservation Committees (VCCs) to engage the local community in efforts to protect the animal, with the result that local people became their 'guards' instead of 'poachers'. Today, the southern parts of Chitral district - from Arandu to Shoghore along the Lot Koh River and up to Koghuzi along the Mastuj River - are inhabited by about 3,500 Kashmir markhors.

Talking to Dawn, Dr Malik said that after his appointment as divisional forest officer in 1975, he travelled to every nook and corner of the district, from Baroghil to Sha Junali in the extreme north to Madak Lusht and Arandu in the south and found that the animals were in grave danger due to flaws in the hunting system then in practice. 'I came to the conclusion that the common man should be made a stakeholder in the conservation process to achieve the desired results and this notion formed the basis of the VCC model that was replicated in other provinces and regions as well,' he said.

Under this model, the villages supporting the population of markhors and other wildlife were organised into VCCs, which were...

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