Two persons were sentenced to two years imprisonment and Rs5 million fine each for poaching of the endangered animal. Two other persons were given one year jail term and fine. GILGIT: Five people have been convicted of poaching in Hopar, Nager and sent to jail, said a press statement issued by the WildLife and Forest Department, Gilgit-Baltistan on Wednesday. High …

Agricultural village in Badakhshan, Afghanistan. Photo by Christopher Wilton-Steer/UCA Herald Report In Pamir mountains of High Asia region with limited agricultural lands, rugged topography, and large gradients, the preservation of agrobiodiversity and an appreciation of traditional knowledge about food systems are essential ingredients of a sustainable future. Hence the University of Central Asia’s Mountain Societies Research Institute (MSRI) has begun …

    M Ajmal K Masood   While travelling to the north, most of the youth make their travelling statuses as ‘mountains are calling’. This phrase is not merely a social media buzzword but resonates the social, cultural and spiritual relations between the people and the mountains. In the primitive age, human being living in mountainous regions such as High …

Global leaders call for awareness about the importance of biodiversity, promotion of ecosystem-based solutions to build a future in harmony with nature    Herald Report   Islamabad: As the world is reeling from the devastating impact of coronavirus, world leaders have called on the global community to “re-examine our relationship to the natural world, create knowledge and awareness about the …

Universities closed. The global death toll is approaching 230,000 with more than 3.2 million infections confirmed, causing mass disruptions. Tajikistan on Saturday reported first two deaths from the coronavirus. The state television confirmed the deaths and reported that the number of COVID-19 cases had risen to 76 from 44. Around 2,800 people have been quarantined in hospitals, it also said. …

  High Asia Herald Report The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Wildlife Department team and a WWF-Pakistan’s filmmaker captured a Himalayan lynx hunting a markhor on the steep, rocky cliffs of Chitral valley. According to an official statement, this is for the first time that a nocturnal hunter and highly elusive animal has been filmed in the area. The lynx, locally considered …

Herald Report In 2012, a team of archaeologists discovered ancient artifects on the Naryn campus of the University of Central Asia (UCA), says a report published in the newsletter of the university recently. The University mission to help the people of Central Asia preserve and draw upon their rich cultural traditions and heritages as assets for the future came to …

Running only on fast-moving water, the pumps are cheap and easy to maintain, enabling farmers to grow fruit and vegetables By Syed Muhammad Abubakar GOJAL VALLEY: Shovel in hand, Naila Shah regularly walks two miles from her home to a newly planted apple orchard, high in the mountains of Khyber village in northern Pakistan. Only two years ago, it would …

by Fatehul Mulk Ali Nasir   Prior to Aman-ul-Mulk’s ascension to the throne of Chitral in 1858 the fortunes of this deep valley set amongst the heights of the Hindu Kush were very different. Chitral has long had a tradition of kingship, and indeed the early signs of nationhood, since at least the days of the Chinese Book of Tang, …

High Asia Herald Report  Afghan President Ashraf Ghani banned the hunting of rare birds and animals two years ago, but hunting continues across the country and the hides of rare animals can be bought in markets in the capital, Kabul. Two years ago Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had banned the hunting of rare birds and animals, but hunting continues across …

Situated in the center of Kazakhstan, ALZHIR (Акмолинский лагерь жен изменников родины, “the Akmola camp of wives of traitors to the homeland”) was a notorious prison for thousands of women during its nearly two decades of operation. Behind the barbed wire, the women had to renounce their family and loved ones in order to submit to the will of the “leader of all nations.” …

blob:https://www.rferl.org/dcefe08e-1a40-434b-bb68-ee6b75191810 A Kyrgyz wildlife center is nursing a snow leopard named Zhaabars back to health after he was badly wounded by a shotgun. Despite conservationists’ efforts, the rare cats are sometimes targeted by poachers and farmers protecting their herds. By Current Time

Herald Report   The US invasion of Iraq was aimed at setting up permanent military bases there and to benefit energy corporations and weapons industry, comments Professor Noam Chomsky, an internationally acclaimed American linguist in a conversation with Hassan Mirza, published in The Express Tribune Blogs section. The conversation is based on correspondence between the two over a period of …

Two references are under trial in a NAB court in Gilgit against the accused for their role in Rs48.28m   Herald Report   The country’s top anti-graft body has filed a corruption reference against four retired officers of the Gilgit-Baltistan’s Forest Department for inflicting over Rs48 million loss to the national exchequer by allowing the transportation of illegally cut timber. …

Herald Report Soviet architecture in Central Asia, as the name tells, is a fusion of Soviet modernity with traditional Central Asian culture that remains remarkable to this day, writes Xeniya Mironova, in Voice on Central Asia website. Persian and Islamic motifs can be still found among Soviet buildings in Dushanbe, Tashkent, Almaty, and Bishkek. But these buildings are becoming exceedingly …