Markhor Conservation
Memories in politics are short lived so are in the files of newspapers. Markhor conservation came in focus when the authorities were refusing to start the work on Mughal Road project connecting Shopain with Rajouri and providing alternate highway for the people of Kashmir.
The authorities said that a conservation group of Markhor has got a stay on the work unless the government will not provide separate funds for the conservation project before starting the work on the project. Some portion of Mughal Road was passing through the habitat area of Markhors as they are now very few left in the huge lands of Peer Panchal range.
Before starting work on the projects, the funds were transferred to the wild life department and they made a sanctuary for the Markhor on the Mughal Road with that money. The conservation programme was not monitored properly either by the authorities or by the wild life department and with the result there is no turn around in the situation on ground regarding the survival of Markhors.
Recently district authorities of Shopain held a meeting in this direction and took stock of the programme which is linked with community conservation, is being organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), School for Rural Development and Environment SRDE.
Markhor conservation now is at such a stage when the government should coordinate all the efforts to conserve it. The district officials asked the concerned to convene regular meetings and workshops to train community members in modern resource management skills. He said that the training includes accurate identification of wildlife species and signs of occurrence, proper survey methodology, note taking and data recording.
Markhor needs conservation on war footing and now with funds coming without any flaws, the authorities should concentrate on the programme to enhance its population in the upper reaches of Peer Panchal.
