Markhor a majestic mammal ,a mountain goat with corkscrewed horns adept in scaling precipitous rocky cliffs and screes ,grazing on grasses and forbes in summer and browsing on palatable twigs of wild shrubs and shrublets appeared in JK news when Mughal road was to take off. Markhor found in Poonch Shopian and Baramulla mountains won legal battle to thrive in two secure pockets one at Heerpora and other at Kazinag . Tahir Shawl an avowed wildlifer evinced interest to sight mountain goat and I agreed to the arduous trek in search of endangered animal.Night was spent at Doongimarg and day spent in search of Markhor in Heerpora slopes but destiny not favoured us and no Markhor was seen on 13th August 2014. Little disappointed ,our team descended to Dubjan and concluded uncontrolled grazing in the area is to be blamed for our misfortune. Tahir Shawl put another proposal to visit Kazinag and try luck 2nd time. Night was spent at Baba Gail and wildlife team started trek after listening to calls of blue whistling thrush early morning on last day of August .Dipper was sighted just after few minutes.Ascending up through Mithwain rivulet amidst shrubbery and boulders ,we took shelter on a rock at 8000 ft elevation. Markhor herd before us at a distance but I lost oppurtunity as I was in love with blooms behind the location. Just after the breakfast ,Markhor peeped at the top of mountain cliff ,once single female and then with kids.I felt thrilled to see Markhor for the first time in life. Our group descended down towards waterfall and took a shelter under a rock to relax a bit .Lucky was the day, we got another glimpse of five animals ,2 females ,3 kids ,our Binoculars focused on movement of animals across the gorge. No male was sighted but female markhors with kids made our dreams come true ,Markhor national animal of Pakistan was sighted along LoC in Kazinag National Park of Kashmir.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 16:30:22 +0000
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