By Nabin Sishir BK
Baglung, Dec. 2: One Himalayan Blue Sheep and one Himalayan Tahr were hunted in Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve in the first hunting season of the year.
Warye Frederic Dark, a Belgian citizen, hunted the two animals in the Dhustung block of the hunting reserve.
Amrit Thapa, director of Nepal Travels and Expeditions – the company that managed Dark’s hunting trip to Dhorpatan, said that the government collected Rs. 361,500 in revenue this season from the hunters hunting the Blue Sheep and Tahr.
The Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) has called a global tender for hunting 10 Blue Sheep and six Tahrs in the first half of the current fiscal year. However, only one company has submitted its proposal so far.
Commercial hunters from the United States, Russia, Spain, France and other countries have been coming to the reserve, the only hunting reservation of the country, since its establishment in 1987.
According to the reserve’s Chief Conservation Officer Birendra Prasad Kandel, companies like Himalayan Safaris, Global Safaris, Nepal Wildlife Adventure, Himalayan Outfitters, Tracks and Trails, Nepal Wildlife, Samari and OpenNepal Wild Safaris and Tracks to name a few, bring hunters to Dhorpatan.
On the reservation, which covers an area of 1,325 square kilometres in the districts of Baglung, Rukum and Myagdi districts, hunting is open twice a year – the first season lasts from September to November and the second season from March to April. Last year’s March-April season was affected by the COVID-19 lockdown.
The reserve is home to 32 species of mammals and 164 species of birds. It is divided into seven blocks which are Sundah, Seng, Dogadi, Varshe, Falgune, Surtivang and Dhustung.
The DNPWC regularly counts and monitors main wildlife and sets annual quotas of animals to hunt.