Mustang. Sheep and mountain goats are being sold in Mustang for the Tihar festival. According to the Veterinary Hospital and Livestock Service Expert Centre, Mustang, around one thousand sheep and mountain goats have been sold from Mustang and Dolpa for the Tihar festival.

Prior to this, 16,000 sheep and mountain goats from Mustang, Dolpa, Mugu, Jumla among other places were taken to other places for sale via Beni-Jomsom road, said veterinary doctor Lalmani Aryal. He said that the demand for sheep and mountain goats is high during Dashain and Tihar.

Pemba Tsering Rokaya, a trader of Jomsom in Gharpajhong-4, has supplied 80 mountain goats to the market for the Tihar festival. He had taken 300 mountain goats to Pokhara for sale during the Dashain festival. Rokaya, a trader who was chasing him down the valley from Mustang, transported him to Pokhara in a truck from Tatopani of Myagdi. He said that he has incurred a loss of up to five thousand rupees per mountain goat in Dashain.

Rokaya said that the mountain goats bought for the festival cost Rs 30,000 in the cage and they are expected to be easily sold as there are very few mountain goats. It costs Rs 1,500 to transport mountain goats to Pokhara from Mustang, he said. Rokaya, who has been involved in the mountain goat trade for the past 12 years, said that there is a risk in the mountain goat trade.

More than 57,000 sheep and mountain goats have been reared in five local levels of Mustang district. Of this, only 25 percent of sheep and mountain goats have been sold. Consumers prefer the meat of sheep and mountain goats reared in mountainous districts as it is tasty and nutritious.