After walking for eight days, trader Ram Bahadur Khatri came to Baglung from Mustang with 25 mountain goats. This is for the first time in decades, he has imported the mountain goats from Mustang to Baglung.
Although a dozen traders of the district used to go to Mustang to get the mountain goats on the occasion of Dashain, this time only a few traders have reached Mustang. As the goats could not be brought from neighboring Tibet, bringing them from Mustang has increased the price.
At present, 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 alone, but now the number has come down to five to seven hundred.
Khatri said that he had come to Baglung with a small number of mountain goats because of the high price of the 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.
Like Khatri traders, Mahendra KC and Ammar Bahadur Kshatriya, who have reached Mustang, are also coming to Baglung with the mountain goats.
At present, the price of mountain goat meat in the district is Rs. 1,800 per kilogram. Although there is a demand for goat and chicken meat in other festivals, there is a tradition of eating mountain goat meat and taking it as a gift during the Dashain festival.
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