Hazarganji Chiltan National Park

Hazarganji is one of the beautiful national parks in Pakistan. The Hazarganji is local word of Baluchistan meaning that thousands of treasure was buried in Chiltan national park of old army this was the passage of armies and merchandise at very old time. The area is consists of mountain, slope, and plain. The north-south area of this park is easily accessible from Quetta 25-30 kilometers far from the edge of the Quetta. The park is very famous for tourism but at local level international tourists yet not explored it. In start this park is use to safe the diminishing population of Suleiman Markhor and Wild Goat people came from whole Pakistan to see those species some people also plan illegal hunting of Markhor to overcome this problem government of Pakistan established wildlife and forest protection department. Due to interest of visitor’s government also build rest house, museum, and picnic spot for the entertainment of visitors. 

Wildlife in Chiltan Park:

One of the groups in the behalf of National Geography channel came for research on wildlife in Hazarganji Park. They explore that there are almost 800 species of wild goat the population of Suleiman Markhor is very low which is about 300-400 due to lot of hunting. The wild goat likes to live in Jungle area while the Markhor use to live at hilly area the height of mountain is 1500-200 meters.

There are mammals and birds founded in National Park which are, Wild goat, Suleiman Markhor, Leopard, Jackal,  Porcupine, Desert hare, Deer, Red fox, Stripped hyena, Indian wolf, Urial sheep, and Caracal. While the bird species are, Lichtenstein's desert finch, Stonechat, Houbara bustard, vulture, Laggar falcon, Indian sparrow hawk, Scops owl, Common cuckoo, European bee-eater, Rock partridge, European nightjar, Orphean warbler, Griffon vulture, Egyptian vulture, and Honey buzzard. There are also reptiles in desert area of Chiltan Park which are, Saw scaled viper, Monitor lizard, Russell's viper, and Spiny tailed lizard.

The species of plant and trees found in Hazarganji are, amid juniper, pistachio, almond and ash trees.

Background and Access:

The wildlife Park of Hazarganji is established in 1980 which is protected by Rangers this park is protected area for Markhor which is national animal of Pakistan. Hunting of Markhor is strictly prohibited in Park. There is no permission to stay more than two days in this park due to security reason of wild life. No local transportation and proper road leads towards park you have to book and hire transport from Quetta. The international visitors can take flights to Karachi to get access while the domestic visitors can book direst flights to Quetta from whole Pakistan. 

Leopard | Snow Leopard

Leopards are the big cats belong to the cant families. Snow leopard in found in mountain ranges of central Asia. The snow leopard is generally known as Panthera uncia. It is found at the height of 10,990 to 22,000 feet from the sea level. Snow leopard loves to live in cold area his competitor are wolves who use to hunt in group some time leopard got disturbance while hunting. Snow leopard is bit smaller than big cats having weight 27 to 55 kilogram. In some special cases it is noticed that male leopard become 75 kg which is abnormal weight as ordinary leopard. The length from head to base of the tail is 30 to 50 inches in special cases it might be 50 to 60 inches but very rare. 

Due to cold weather species leopard have long thick fur which have smoky gray and yellowish colors. The snow leopard cannot roar as tiger and lion can, but the speed and quickness is more than any other species including lion and tiger. It has long tail which helps them to maintain the balance during travel in dangerous rocky areas. The snow leopard has flexible body like athleats and adjusts body temperature according to the weather. It has very strong jaws and claws to grip and bite the hunt.

The home of snow leopard is Iran and Turkmenistan’s mountain range but, it can be found in China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Russia, Tajikistan, Myanmar and Uzbekistan. If we talk about geographically it is present in, Hindu Kush in eastern Afghanistan, In Tibet it is found at Altyn Tagh in the north, the mountains to the west of Lake Baikal,  In Mongolia it is found in Gobi Altai and the Khangai Mountains, and the mountains of Pamir, Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kashmir, Kunlun. The species of different regions are bit different from each other by size and color.

Usually snow leopard loves to live in cold area so, in summer it moves to the height. Snow leopard found in mountainous meadows and in rocky regions at height of 8900 to 20000 feet. In winter due to shortage of food and water it came down into the forest at 3900 to 6600 feet high from the sea level. Snow leopard can easily travel in snow but usually he likes to walk in already made track by the other animals. Like other cats snow leopard does not allow other leopard to hunt and walk in his territory male leopard like to live alone.

Snow leopard only take meat meal by hunting before eat it sucks the blood of hunt from throat like other hunter species do. The hunted animals are Markhor, Argali, Hares, Birds, Himalayan Tahr, Bharal, Plus deer, wild boars, and languor monkeys. The young Yak is also in range of snow leopard. Snow leopard prefers ambush hunting although he has very fast speed equally on rock and snow.

For exploration of snow leopard it found in Khunjerab national park, Gilgit baltistan, and Chitral national park, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan by getting flights to Islamabad  you can manage flight to Gilgit or by road to access snow leopard ares. Gobi Gurvansaikhan national park, Mongolia to access this national park it is recommended to get flights to Ulan Bator after that you can further get domestic flights and buses. The other regions for snow leopard hunting are Qomolangma national nature preserve, Tibet, China, Hemis national park, in Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, India.