The Markhor stands proud

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There is at least one group (above all others) that values the comparative “calm” that has recently settled over the LOC in Kashmir, as India/Pakistan relations have thawed.  The mighty Markhor.  The Independent reports:

The ceasefire between India and Pakistan in Kashmir has produced an unexpected beneficiary – the world’s largest goat.

The markhor, a mountain goat that stands almost 6ft tall at the shoulder and can weigh 17 stone, was thought to be extinct in Indian-held Kashmir. But a recent joint survey by Indian wildlife organisations and the Indian army found 35 small herds – 155 goats – thriving near the Line of Control.

As recently as 1970 there were 25,000 on the Indian side, but by 1997 they had been driven to near extinction. The main cause was the conflict.

The Indian Express goes into more detail:

”It is really encouraging that we still have a sizeable Markhor population here. The present peace situation is conducive for wildlife. Regular cross-border firing and shelling was a serious threat. But the habitation was improving even before the ceasefire was announced in late 2003. We declared protected areas and were hopeful that the Markhor population would improve,” J&K Chief Wildlife Warden CM Seth told The Indian Express.

J&K Principal Chief Conservator of Forests SD Swatantra also lauded the Army for its role.

”Army personnel have been sensitive to the environmental concerns. Border thaw during the last two years has helped the animals a lot. Earlier, constant presence of the troops minimised poaching and human interference. Now in the absence of conflict, the habitat is improving fast,” he said.

What a noble animal.  A part of me has always wished that humans too had horns.  A lot of petty arguments could be settled by simply locking horns for a few moments…or impalement.  Plus girls would immediately know that you were packing.

11 thoughts on “The Markhor stands proud”

  1. Plus girls would immediately know that you were packing.

    christ, you know how much we’d be spending on horn enhancements and prosthetics??? we’d probably wear horn bras too.

    anyway, it isn’t the size of the horns but what you can do with ’em.

  3. the Indian army found 35 small herds – 155 goats – thriving near the Line of Control

    I just did the math and that comes out to 4.4 goats a “herd.” Maybe they should have said 35 “families.”

  4. The markhor, a mountain goat that stands almost 6ft tall at the shoulder

    That’s a goat?! A six foot tall goat? I mean, I accept the fact that India is bigger (overbearingly) than the rest of its piddly South Asian neighbours…but I didn’t know its goats felt that way too…

  5. Even if peace reigns, poaching should finish off what remains I suppose.

    Going to Munnar I recall seeing the Nilgiri tahr(1,2,3) which although not as impressive as the Markhor, did give new meaning to the phrase “as sure-footed as a mountain goat”(1,2,3).

  8. Your wish for horns, sexual prowess and (perhaps) a goaty nature was anticipated by the Greeks in the God Pan.

    Arcadia, the scene of Pan’s “movements” was/is both an actual locale of rustic, simple peace and an imagined utopia.

    It occurs to me that the topographies of Arcadia and Kashmir must share similarities in that they provide suitable habitats for goat populations. There seems to be a thread/theme here: Arcadia as a synonynm for peace, the situation in Kashmir, and goats.

    In any case your blog reminded me of Gary Wills article, “The Real Arcadia”, the lead essay in the summer 1998 American Scholar.

    I pulled it off the shelf (this is why I keep these things around)and skimmed through it. Here are two quotes:

    What I found this first evening while walking I would afterward experience whenever I drove the rough little back roads of Arcadia: one must be prepared, early and late in the day, to wait for sheep or goats to get where they are going. On the very next morning, while stopped behind a bickering flow of horned billies and and hornless kids, I glanced to the right, into the low sun of morning, and felt my heart stop a second as Pan himself returned my gaze. A careful second look reminded me of something I once knew but had long forgotten-that goats can stand on their hind feet, like dogs. But they have a higher, slimmer profile when they do. What I had seen was a kid on its hind legs slowly pawing a branch as it grazed its buds. This trick of turning biped, along with the sly look some goats contrive at times, no doubt contributed to a vivid apprehension of Pan’s nearness in the Arcadian cult. In the iconography of the god, he is often shown as “spying Pan,” turning a quick intense glance on the viewer, lifting at times a hand (or hoof) to shade his eyes from the bright sun. He has the sprightliness of his half-goat nature. The Homeric Hymn to Pan called him Quick on the cliffs where scampering goats are seen.

    There is no doubt about Pan’s “talent”. Here’s another short paragraph:

    Pan was no Disney creature frisking about. He was majestic in his willfulness, slyness, and anger. One of his cult titles was Goatboy-Penetrator Pan – a title illustrated on a famous vase now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, where Pan swoops after a goatherd preceded by several feet of his own phallus.

  9. Wow. Big goat. I’m very happy to hear that wildlife is doing well and the goat is on the up, I’m very pro-wildlife. Very.

    Imagine eating that goat. Mmmm…endangered mutton.

  10. Imagine eating that goat. Mmmm…endangered mutton.

    With your eating prowess I am sure, you can swallow down a whole goat – horns and all. 🙂

    I bow before thee, O bottomless pit!

  11. Those aren’t horns, those are pasta. Or maybe spirulina.

    or maybe a 3-D model to supplement razib’s latest scientific findings… the horns resemble a double helix, to me 🙂