Pokhara, October 15:

Some 22,000 goats and rams are estimated to have been brought from hilly districts and Tibet for Dashain in Pokhara this year. The figure was around 19,000 last year.

Large number of goats and rams are brought to Pokhara and adjoining areas to meet the demand for meat during the Dashain festival, livestock and meat entrepreneurs said. The rams and goats are being sold from the ground of Rastriya Secondary School in Purano Tundikhel at Pokhara-1. The entrepreneurs have said that the market price for goat meat may reach as much as Rs 280 per kg this year.

Chairperson Pokhara chapter of Goat Meat Entrepreneurs’ Association, Santosh Shrestha that Pokhara and adjoining areas consume as many as 20,000 goats and rams during the Dashain every year.

Some 700 buffaloes, 7,000 chickens and ducks and 800 pigs are consumed for meat in Pokhara during Dashain, Pokhara chapter of Meat Entrepreneurs Committee said.

It takes seven days to bring rams from hilly districts including Manang, Mustang and Dolpa.