KARACHI, Dec 15: Names of 10 hunters who will carry out trophy hunting of Sindh Ibex were declared by the Sindh Wildlife Department (SWD) after holding a ballot here on Monday.

More than 50 hunters had applied for the trophy hunting permits and a majority of the hunters or their representatives were present at the balloting performed in the Masonic Lodge, where SWD’s head office is located, in the afternoon.

The successful hunters are, Khairpur District Nazim Ghulam Rasool (Aquib) Jatoi; Nawabshah MNA Ghulam Mustafa Shah; Iskandar Pataudi; Naveed Lodhi; Ather Ahmad Khan; Khamiso; Anwer Ali; Syed Imran; Chief of Karachi Building Control Authority Manzoor Qadir; and Abdullah Adil.

The reserve price for the Sindh Ibex trophy permit for local hunters had been fixed at Rs50,000 each.

Sources said that the National Council for Conservation of Wildlife (NCCW) had also allotted the Sindh Ibex and Urial trophy hunting quota for foreigners. The NCCW has given a quota of five trophies of Urial and 10 trophies of Sindh Ibex with reserve prices of $18,750 and $2,500 each, respectively.

NCCW permission is necessary for the hunting of these animals as without the permit the overseas hunters cannot take the trophy back home.

The hunting permits for foreigners, balloting for which was held a few days back by the SWD, had been given to three Islamabad-based safari outfitters for approximately $19,100 and $4,100 each, respectively. These outfitters will bring in the hunters, mostly from the western countries, at premium prices which usually are many times more than what they pay to the SWD.

The outfitters would arrange the hunt in the Surjan, Sumbak, Eri and Hothiano game reserves and Hilalo and Pachran protected areas that have been specified by the SWD, staffers of which also monitor the hunt.

Quoting a recent survey conducted in these areas by the SWD staffers, the sources said that the total population of the Sindh Ibex and Urial was 1,451 and 290 respectively, and harvestable population – the number of animals whose trophy could be hunted – was 43 and 20 respectively. The length of the horn that could qualify the male animal for trophy is 35 plus inches and 22 plus inches for Sindh Ibex and Urial respectively.

In the early 1970s, owing to the ruthless poaching the population of Sindh Ibex and Urial had declined to only a few hundred animals so the Sindh government had declared the major portion of Khirthar Mountains as Khirthar National Park (KNP) in the mid 1970s to protect both of these species from extinction.

With protection and habitat improvement, the animal population increased and a few years back a study carried out by an Australian university team declared the presence of more than 10,000 Sindh Ibex and over 7,000 Urial in the area. Keeping in view the animal population in the KNP and its carrying capacity, the SWD had introduced the trophy hunting in the game reserves and protected areas that surround the KNP.