Foreigners’ hunting ground: mountainous Dhorpatan

There are wild, beautiful hunting grounds in Nepal but only one area is open to foreigners. It’s Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve in Baglung district, reaching into Rukum and Myagdi as well.

This mountainous region offers trophy hunters a couple of hard-to-get additions to their collection. One is the Himalayan thar, a mountain goat, and the other the blue sheep, in fact also a wild goat, both with horns that any trophy hunter would cherish.

It’s a lot of hiking – the total area is 1,325 km² wildnerness – and it’s fairly pricy too. Shooting a Himalayan thar costs up to 221,000 rs (2,000 USD) while a blue sheep has a 115,000 rs (1100 USD) price tag.

Indeed, every year a handsome amount is made in government revenue as hunters from countries like the U.S., Canada, Norway, Poland and Spain fly in for the shoot. In total, the reserve made 4,6 million rs. (42,000 USD) in revenue this fiscal year alone.

It’s also exclusive hunting by any standard. The quota varies from year to year, but no more than one or two dozen animals of each species are selected for hunting and shot in one fiscal year.

The Himalayan thar is on the near-threatened species list, in part because of hunting, while the blue sheep – stable food of the snow leopard – is not if considering the Himalayan region as a whole. Hopefully, the collected revenue will go into further protecting and preserving these majestic rock climbers and their wild, beautiful habitat.

Hunting in Dhorpathan is organised by Hunting Company Nepal Wildlife Safaris, Himalayan Safaris and Global Safaris.