International Day of the Markhor

  With special approval of CITES , the KPK WD launched the community based markhor trophy hunting program in the Province in 1997. This program was launched to encourage nearby communities and their role in the protection of Markhor and other wild species. For this 80% of the permit fee has to be placed into a Village Conservation Fund (VCF). This program worked effectively to change the point of view of locals. The KPK ought to get acknowledgement for this accomplishment since nearby occupants effectively participated in the security of markhors . In 1992, CITES moved all Capra falconeri subspecies and populations from Appendix II to Appendix I. In 1997, the Conference of Parties to the Convention on InternationalTrade in Endangered Species (CITES) issued a resolution permitting an annual export limit of six Markhor trophies from Pakistan's community-based hunt market sectors to  CITES -accredited countries.  Wildlife Conservation Society. The WCS community-based cons...

 All five sub-species of Markhor are at the forefront of threats which include the habitat loss, low reproductive rates, lack of incentives, poaching, lack of operational funds, lack of public awareness and deforestation etc.. One of the major problems is habitat loss which plays a vital role in the extinction of Markhor and other wild animals. The factors which affect the habitat of Markhor are overpopulation of humans, more usage of wood, logs planks, pasturing, foraging and conquering of alien species. In 1975 Wildlife Act a cash reward is announced but no reward for the staff and insufficient investment demoted the workers. Lack of education is a hindrance in conservation. Regional community in KPK are ignorant of the social and economic welfare for renewable conservation of wildlife. So, it is noticed a lack of knowledge about wise use of wild species, lack of concentration, inadequate budget, and topographical isolation are some reasons for the extinction of hoofed species....

Pakistan has a wide variety of wild goats and sheeps belonging to subfamily Caprinae and family bovidae. There are seven Caprinae species which are found in Pakistan, and further partitioned into 12 subspecies . Markhor is one of the members of family Bovidae and subfamily Caprinae, which was rstly portrayed by Wagner in 1839. The word Markhor is imitative of Persian linguistic means snake eater. However, it is mostly considered as Pashto driven word "MAR Akhkar". "MAR" represents snake and "Akhkar" to horns. Later on passage of time, the word became Markhor. On the basis of horns Markhor has two sub-species such as straight horned and are horned Markhor. The straight horned Markhor further divided into Kabul and Suleiman Markhor while, are horned Markhor into Astor and Kashmir Markhor, The markhor is also divided into five types that are found in Pakistan and recognized as Astor Markhor (Capra falconeri falconeri), Kashmir or Pir Panjal Markhor (Capra f...