Mustang. Sheep and mountain goats from Dolpa and Jumla have been reduced to Mustang as the Dashain festival approaches. Traders who have arrived here said that sheep and mountain goats were chased from Jumla and Dolpa on foot and brought to Jomsom of Mustang after two weeks.

According to the District Veterinary Hospital and Livestock Service Experts Centre, around five thousand sheep and mountain goats will enter Mustang from Jumla this year. As the Dashain festival is approaching, five to six herds of sheep and mountain goats from Dolpa and three from Jumla have been seen at Jomsom till date. The traders who have arrived here have said that they will also bring all the sheep and mountain goats to Jomsom within a day or two.

Traders from Baragung Mukti Chhetra and Upper Mustang have not brought sheep and mountain goats to Jomsom while sheep and mountain goats from Dolpa and Jumla have reached Jomsom. The Veterinary Hospital and Livestock Service Centre Office has projected that 12,000 sheep and mountain goats will be sold outside the district this year.

Bhim Prasad Gharti, a local mountain goat trader of Kaike Rural Municipality in Dolpa, said he brought 170 sheep and mountain goats to Jomsom for sale. According to him, sheep and mountain goats were brought to Mustang for sale after purchasing them in the farmers’ shed at Morimla checkpoint on the border of Dolpa and China.

Gharti said that an estimated four thousand sheep and mountain goats are on the way to Mustang this year, including three thousand sheep and mountain goats from China and one thousand from Dolpa. Gharti, who has been engaged in the business of mountain goats every year for the past two decades, said he is worried that the sheep and mountain goats might not be sold this year. “I have heard that there is agitation and unrest in the valley, so I don’t know if the traders will not come here,” he said.

Gharti said that although he was satisfied with the mountain goat business so far, he was worried about the mountain goat business this year. He said that he bought it from China, kept it in Dolpa and chased him on foot from there and reached Jomsom after a week.

Similarly, Gobinda Basnet, a mountain goat trader from Jumla, said he had brought 150 mountain goats to Jomsom. According to him, more than 600 sheep and mountain goats are being brought to Mustang from Dolpa and more than 600 sheep and mountain goats from Jumla have already entered Mustang for sale. According to him, a group of mountain goats from Jumla have arrived in Jomsom this year.

“I have reared half of the mountain goats myself and I bought more than half of them,” Basnet said, adding, “It took me two weeks to bring them here and we have already spent Rs 50÷60,000.” Basnet said that he plans to sell the mountain goats in Jomsom and if not, he will sell them in Pokhara.

Five÷seven herds of sheep and mountain goats have been felled in Jomsom at present. Traders here are selling the goats at Rs 35,000 per goat and Rs 30,000 per sheep.

While sheep and mountain goats are falling sporadically from Dolpa and Jumla in Jomsom, the liveliness of sheep and mountain goats traders in the valley have not been seen much in Jomsom. Locals believe that mountain goat traders have been delayed in their arrival in Mustang due to the current situation in the country. In the past years, traders from Myagdi, Baglung, Parbat, Kaski, Syangja and Tanahun among others used to come to Mustang to buy sheep and mountain goats.