| Last
year I visited Karoser to conduct a western tragopan survey.
It was quite late in the season and despite visiting the area
after some pretty heavy snowfall, usually a prerequisite for
pheasant surveys, I failed to flush any tragopans from the forest
above Karoser.
Most pheasants in Palas breed on the north-facing bank of
the valley where it is cooler. Sometime in late summer or
autumn they migrate across the Musha’ga River to the
south facing bank where the winter sun keeps the snow away
and ensures maximum exposure to the sun.
This year we visited during the right time but were faced
with very little snow on the ground, resulting in the possibility
that the birds would be high up and spread across the area.
We reached on a Saturday and talked to the hunter who confirmed
our fears, the birds were above the summer settlements and
it would be whole mornings walk just to get to the habitat.
This could be a problem since the best time to flush tragopans
is in the morning when they presumably feed on the ground
and are more easily flushed. During the day they probably
sit in a mature Deodar or Oak forests where they are safe
from most predators.
Our first day was spent in the Torband forest. This has always
been a good forest for tragopans probably due to its distance
from any major settlement. This forest lies between Karoser
and Gadar which is linked by a footpath. There is only one
abandoned settlement on this route so disturbance remains
low.
Ideally one would follow at least a goat track through the
forest, but with the absence of snow, the birds could be anywhere
so we had to resort to climbing straight up the mountain side
through dense stands of Jaquemontia, Cotoneaster and Indigofera.
I soon remembered how difficult surveying tragopans is after
my hat had been whipped off for the umpteenth time.
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Winter habitat of pheasant species in Torband forest
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We flushed a few Koklas but I was getting pessimistic about
seeing any tragopans when the tell-tale call of a tragopan was
heard followed by a large bird. The female flew right over my
head and I again remembered why tragopan surveys are so rewarding.
Experience has shown that tragopans live in winter groups
and where you find one, you are bound to find more. We were
not wrong, within a few minutes another female and one male
where also flushed. Though this was relatively poor in numbers
considering past successes, we were still satisfied that tragopans
were still around and following their usual pattern of both
inter and intra grouping.
We descended from Torband forest in the early afternoon and
returned to Karoser for a late lunch and a rest in the late
winter sun.
The next day we headed for the forest directly above Karoser,
a much less folded topography, but well forested none the
less. We tried to start earlier than the day before (the community
decided to hold a jirga just before we left) but this did
not seem to make much difference. Within a few minutes of
leaving Bunjbek, Koklas were hurtling out of Jaquemontia stands
and we had clear glimpses of these avian F-16’s.
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Sonny, shikari and CBO Secretary rolled into one
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Unfortunately, we did not see many tragopans
in the Karoser forest, despite surveying right up to the summer
settlements area. Perhaps the disturbance in the form of grazing
and firewood collection from the village below had pushed
the birds to higher altitudes and to other forests, such as
Torband.
Surveying pheasants and other birds as part of a monitoring
programme takes time and in the forthcoming seasons I would
like to suggest that the project either utilizes students
for this job or does what HJP used to do and get some ornithologists
to carry out this job.
As usual, the people of Karoser extended their courtesy and
help throughout the trip and I would like to thank Mir Alam
and Mustajab of PCDP, our porters, Sharif and Siraj. Finally
thanks must go to all of the people of Karoser, especially
Sonny for his assistance in flushing the birds. And lastly
the dog without a name who did all the real work !
Rab Nawaz
PO-BDC
PCDP
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