United Nations: The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday decided to declare May 24 as International Markhor Day sponsored by Pakistan and 8 other countries.
The resolution calls for a globally observed day and calls on all stakeholders to focus on developing international and regional partnerships to support Markhor conservation efforts, given its place in the overall ecosystem.
Markhor is national animal of Pakistan, where it is also known as the “screw goat”.
The resolution called on the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) to facilitate the commemoration of International Markhor Day.
The text emphasizes that the Markhor is an iconic and ecologically important species found in the highlands of Central and South Asia.
It recognizes that the conservation of marjoram and its natural habitat is ecologically important and an important opportunity for regional economic development, conservation efforts, and sustainable tourism and economic development.
In Pakistan, Markhors are found in the Chitral, Kohistan and Kalam regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), as well as in the Gilgit-Baltistan region, Balochistan and parts of Azad Kashmir.
Once believed to be endangered, the number of Markhors has gradually increased and doubled in the current decade, with a notable jump since 2014.
This is now the 10th year of the wild longhorn goat population.
“The population of Markhor has increased by 2% per year since 2014,” said Saeed Abbas, the Pakistani representative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in a press interview.
According to Abbas, the current estimated population of Markhor is between 3,500 and 5,000, mostly in KP, followed by Gilgit-Baltistan and Balochistan.
