NEW YORK: The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has adopted a resolution, sponsored by Pakistan and eight other nations, to proclaim May 24 as the World Day of the Markhor.
The resolution invites worldwide observance of the Day and also invites all relevant stakeholders to give due consideration to enhancing global and regional cooperation in support of efforts to conserve the Markhor, given its main role in the ecosystem. The Markhor is the national animal of Pakistan and Markhors found in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province’s Kohistan, Chitral, and Kalam regions, as well as the GB, the Balochistan and Azad Kashmir.
Once believed to be on the edge of extinction, Markhor numbers have steadily surged, doubling in a couple of years, with a specific jump since 2014. This is now the 10th straight year that numbers of Markhor have grown.
In an interview, Saeed Abbas an official with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Pakistan said that the population of the Markhor has been growing with an annual ratio of 2 percent since 2014. He added that the Markhor’s current population is between 3,500 and 5,000, a majority of them in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, followed by Gb and Balochistan, according to Abbas.
The UN resolution invites the UNEP to facilitate the observance of the World Day of the Markhor.
The text of the resolution also underlines that the Markhor is an iconic and ecologically significant species found across the mountainous areas of Central and South Asia. It recognizes that preserving the Markhor and its natural habitat is an ecological imperative and an important opportunity to bolster the regional economy, foster conservation efforts and also promote sustainable tourism and economic increase.
