Wish you all the ECOCLUB friends a very happy new year 2012!

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Wish all friends a happy Merry Christmas!

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Chitral -- Tourism Corporation Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (TCKP) sponsored festival of indigenous cuisines and the evening musical show was organized through the arrangement of Chitral Association for Mountain Area Tourism (CAMAT) on March 21, 2011, in Chitral town.

The slogan of the day was ‘our culture is our identity; its protection is our need’. The objective of the activity was to protect and promote the traditional food of Chitral and to link the same with tourism industry for the economic empowerment and welfare of women—who are normally involved in cooking at household level—in the entire region.
It is to be noted that the young generation has almost had forgotten the names and tastes of their cultural cuisines, which means they could disappear very soon without adding economic incentives and linking it with tourism industry. This was the overarching objective of the event.

The food festival implemented in collaboration with Girl Guides—a voluntary organization of young school students in Dolomoch, Chitral town. The event was planned, monitored and supervised by community representatives and judges.
The cuisines showcased on the occasion i.e. shoshp, chhira shapik, ghara, shoshpalaki, chamborogh, sanabachi, mol and lazhek were cooked at household level. They were highly appreciated and categorized in respect of tastes by judges, who were assigned with the task. The participants were awarded with per dish-based cash awards.
Needless to say, the traditional hospitality and local cuisines of Chitral could go hand in hand so far as tourism development matters. However, much work needs to be done to improve hospitality and taste of the cuisines without compromising on its originality. This could be possible through formal cooking training and hospitality courses.
Meanwhile, the evening musical event was also organized in Chitral town to be participated by a wide spectrum of community members from different valleys in addition to folksingers, folk dancers and instrumentalists.
Some forgotten folk dances i.e. anaphari, tatali wawali, chong rigishi and barwazi were performed by expert folk dancers. The musical event mostly focused on the participation of young talented artists hailing from rural background, which made the programme culturally more colorful and vibrant. Occasion like this could be used to give exposure to the young artists to groom up the laden potential of music.

The music of pasture flutists also featured in the musical show. The instrument is played by nomads as they tend cattle in the summer pastures. Its plaintive notes echo in the rocks and makes melancholic resonance that enthrall the listeners.

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Competition of cooking traditional Chitrali cuisines and evening cultural music will be organised on March 21. The activity is organised through the support of Sarhad Tourism Corporation and will be implemented by CAMAT. It must be noted that STC and CAMAT signed MoU and the former provided financial support for the activities of 2011-12.

The purpose of the activity is to promote the indigenous cuisines and to link it with tourism industry in guest houses to be sumplemented by traditional music.

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PESHAWAR: The Wildlife department has sold permits for hunting of four Kashmiri Markhors (wild goat with spiral long horns) under the Trophy Hunting Scheme. "We have sold permits for the current hunting season, starting from December to March, to an outfitter, Shikar Safari Club," informed Chief Conservator Wildlife Department Saeeduz Zaman while talking to this news agency on Tuesday.

He revealed that four permits have been sold at a total value of $2,86,000. Giving further details, Saeed said, two permits were sold for hunting Markhor in Tooshi Shasha game reserved in Chitral for $80,500 each.

Similarly, one permit was sold for $70000 in Gahirat game reserved in Chitral while the fourth one was sold for Kohistan district (Kaigah Game Reserve) for $55,000. The chief conservator said sale of these permits were made through auction. The department sought bids from hunters-outfitter for hunting of 10 Himalayan ibexes and four Kashmiri Markhors.

"Advertisements were floated in the press and also put on websites of international organisations dealing with wildlife for attracting maximum number of hunters, he added. After completion of bidding process, permits were given to the highest bidder, Shikar Safari club.

He informed that in the current year no bid was received for hunting of ibex and therefore the department decided to allow Markhor hunters to start hunting. He said, "The highest bidder can resell the permit on foreign hunter who will pay more for hunting of the animal in the hills of Chitral and Kohistan districts.

About the Trophy Hunting Scheme, Saeed said, communities are involved in conservation of wildlife and the revenue generated from sale of hunting permits of protected animals were mostly spent on development of respective communities. He also informed that in the province hunters show interest in hunting of Markhor while the ibex hunters prefer hunting in Northern Areas.

Saeed said trophy hunting is a very attractive incentive for involvement of communities in conservation of wildlife. Once the Markhor was endangered specie in Pakistan, but now the country has largest population of this rare animal. – AP

Please visit the following website link for to read from the direct source:

http://chitralnews.com/newsdetail.php?id=548

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Wish everybody a happy year 2011!

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Chitral Association for Mountain Area Tourism (CAMAT) facilitated the participation of artisans from the Chitral district to Lok Virsa Handicraft/ Looming Exhibition in Shakarparian, Islamabad from December 28 to30, 2010. The purpose of the exhibition was to highlight the products from different parts of Pakistan, giving market linkages and exposure opportunities to artisans to learn from each other’s work.

Chitral’s pavilion attracted a good number of visitors who showed interest in the handicrafts and bought Chitrali cap, woolen and goat-hair carpet, wooden spoon and so on.

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The Kalash people, living in Bumburate, Birir and Rumbur valleys of the district, began to celebrate their winter festival Chitramas on Wednesday with spiritual zeal.

The final day of the weeklong festival coincides with the first day of the new year of Kalash calendar. In every village, some Kalash men and women volunteer to confine themselves in a cattle pen. The tradition is called Autik, which means ‘to get secluded’ in the local dialect.

The secluded persons completely insulate themselves from other people during the week and eat the meat of slaughtered goats, drink and pass time in merrymaking. The elder Kalash congregate on the hilltops or plateaus to observe the movement of sun on the basis of which they declare the advent of new year on the final day of the festival.

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1.    Introduction

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The unique mountain goats (Markhor) were at the verge of extinction in Chitral at the beginning of nineties before the World Conservation Union (IUCN) started biodiversity conservation project in Chitral in collaboration with Wildlife Department Chitral to preserve the population of markhor. As a result a number of conservancies were established and notified by the provincial government and conservation efforts were launched with the local communities already organized by AKRSP in majority areas.

Within a short period of time 5-6 years trophy hunting was introduced as wildlife conservation tool by the Khyber Pukhtunkhaw Wildlife Department, which was well received by the communities. The years and price of trophies over the year are as follows: In 1999 two trophy hunts were carried out in Thushi Community Game Reserve Chitral and each Markhor hunt was auctioned at 18,000 USD. By the year 2000, the markhor auction went up 25,000 USD and with each passing year it continuously increased and reached 45,000 USD per markhor in 2005. The figure of 2008 show that a markhor hunt in Thushi was auctioned up to USD 80,000. The last time price of the trophy in 2009 went upto USD 85,000

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