KATHMANDU, OCTOBER 10
After walking for eight days, trader Ram Bahadur Khatri from Mustang reached Baglung with 25 mountain goats. This is for the first time in decades that he has brought mountain goats from Mustang to Baglung.
Although a dozen of traders in the district used to reach Mustang to buy mountain goats on the occasion of Dashain, only a few of them have reached the district this time around. The price of goats has increased as they could not be brought from neighbouring Tibet.
Most of the mountain goats of Mustang are taken to Pokhara. Until a few years ago, two to three thousand mountain goats were brought to Baglung, but now the number has come down to 500 to 700.
Khatri said he had come to Baglung with a small number of mountain goats because of high price of goats in Mustang. "The price of a mountain goat in Mustang is Rs 32,000 and we plan to sell it in Baglung for at least Rs 36,000," he said. Likewise, traders Mahendra KC and Ammar Bahadur Kshatriya have also arrived in Baglung with mountain goats.
At present, the price of mountain goat meat in the district is Rs 1,800 per kilogram.
Although there is demand for goat and chicken meat in other festivals, there is a tradition of eating mountain goat meat.
A version of this article appears in the print on October 11, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
