DUSHANBE, June 18, 2015, Asia-Plus – The Interior Ministry press center report that resident of the Murgab district in the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) has been detained for hunting Marco Polo sheep.
Criminal proceedings have been instituted against alleged poacher and an investigation is under way.
Representative from the country’s agency for environmental protection says losses caused by illegal Marco Polo sheep hunting are estimated at 160,000 somoni.
We will recall that a two-year moratorium on hunting Marco Polo sheep was introduced in Tajikistan in January 2009 but it was lifted ahead of scheduled in September 2010.
In a report released in Dushanbe on July 18, 2011, Talbak Salimov, the then head of the Committee for Environmental Protection, revealed that the sale of licenses for hunting Marco Polo sheep during the hunting season (February-March) earned the government more than 3.6 million somoni (equivalent to some 768,000 U.S. dollars).
According to specialists, the price of license for hunting Marco Polo sheep was 51,000 somoni in 2010 and some 55,000 somoni in 2011.
In the 1980s, some 60,000 Marco Polo sheep reportedly lived in the high mountains of Gorno Badakhshan.
The Marco Polo sheep (Ovis ammon polii) is a subspecies of argali sheep, named after Marco Polo. Their habitat is the mountainous regions of Central Asia. Marco Polo sheep are distinguishable mostly by their large size and spiraling horns. Their conservation status is “near threatened” and efforts have been made to protect their numbers and keep them from commercial hunting. It has also been suggested that crossing them with domestic sheep could have agricultural benefits.
