CHITRAL, March 20: The villagers living close to the Toshi game reserve are jeopardising the local population of Kashmir markhor by grazing their animals in the pasture reserved for the wild goat, locals say.

They say that the practice has led to transmission of disease from the livestock to the markhors, putting them at risk. They added that it was a violation by the villagers in the terms of understanding reached with the wildlife department, according to which the local population should abstain from grazing their animals in the sanctuary.

The divisional forest officer of wildlife division, Chitral, Imtiaz Ahmed, confirmed the death of two markhors in the game reserve. However, a resident of Seen village near the game reserve, Miraj Muhammad Khan, claims that the number runs into dozens.

He said that goats and markhors consume water from the same pond at higher altitude of the pasture leading to the transmission of disease.

Shahzada Amir Hassanuddin, general secretary of Al-Burhan village conservation committee, while talking to Dawn said that he recorded death of about five markhors every year in the game reserve.

He said that the locals graze their goats in the area which get mixed with the markhors and the disease has been transmitted to them from the goats.

To conserve the decaying population of markhor in the area, the wildlife department has organised the local community near the game sanctuaries into village conservation committees (VCCs) and 80 per cent of the income accrued from the sale of hunting permits is put at their disposal for collective area development.

Some of the VCC workers say that grazing is not allowed in the sanctuary and in lieu of that, they are paid the income from permit fee.

They said that some of the local communities were using the core zone of the game reserve for grazing their animals jeopardising the rare wildlife, which brings hard cash to the country in the form of foreign exchange.

The hunting permit of a Kashmir markhor is sold to foreign hunters for $85,000 every year.