The below website is a collection of photographs from the national park. Reasons for poor quality are given below!
Hazarganji-Chiltan National Park had been set-up in order to protect the Chiltan Wild Goat, which was very rare on the other ranges around Quetta but found in some numbers still on the Chiltan Peak. The Chiltan Wild Goat is endemic to this area. The name of the park consists of two parts, and two areas. Chiltan is one of the highest peaks around Quetta, along with Koh-i-Murdar and Zarghun. The second section of the park is Hazaranji, or the land of a thousand treasures.
To get to the national park we drove onto the Quetta to Karachi Highway in a southern direction eventually turning right onto a metalled road which became a 4-wheen drive track. The national park is between 20 -30 km from the provincial capital Quetta. Once onto the track there is a national park welcome board giving some basic information about flora and fauna of the park. The park boundary we fenced off and vegetation in evidence. Although the area is generally quite barren what vegetation there was has been over-grazed and a recent drought has made the situation worse.
The day was gloomy and clouds building up – sometime today rainfall was going to be expected and after a very big gap. It was a November afternoon.
The drive onto the track left the highway and its noise far behind and very slowly rose up. The sky was darkening but the colour of the floor and vegetation shone like gold. There were grasses, shrubs and stunted trees. Even as we drove to the guesthouse I saw a Grey Shrike perched prominently on a small tree, a covey of Chukar Partridges fly across the track and the greatest surprise yet being a hunting Eagle or Buzzard soaring and scouring the plain for prey. I managed to get it on video quite closely but not managed to decipher what it was.
We rested at the guesthouse and met a game warden named Isa Khan who had a lot of experience here. The sky was dark and sadly the goats had retreated from out of view of the telescope to escape the oncoming showers. The Chiltan Wild Goat were thought to be a sub-species of Markhor because of the slightly serpentile twists in their horns but later classified as a unique sub-species of Wild Goat. They have vanished from most of their range. In the 1980’s numbers dropped to 100 but over the next 20 years numbers rose to over 1000. Hunters and poachers then focused on the Afghan Urial, a wild sheep species which was wiped out in this national park but still exists in nearby areas. The Black Bear has long disappeared from this region and is only found within a few localized pockets of Balochistan. Wolves are frequently seen but other large predators such as Leopards have not been recorded for a while. Leopards could recolonise as they have occurred here and there is sufficient prey levels to support them now. Jackals, Red Fox, Jungle Cat, Hare, Porcupine, See See Partridges, Ravens, Magpies, Golden Eagles and other smaller birds as well rodents, lizards, snakes and tortoises.
I went for a walk to explore and saw some unidentified smaller passerines including a Redstart. I entered a ravine and climbed up a little. There were some goat droppings which appeared fresh yet no sign of any wild animals other than a large bird of prey circling in and out of fog around a peak higher up. The bird was dark and could have been a Golden Eagle or a Black Vulture. The haunting calls of the invisible Chukar Partridges broke the silence.
My greatest regret was visiting on a day which there was going to be some serious rains. I do not regret it raining at all as this land receives little rainfall and could be months or years. I had a normal non-digital camera and this coupled with a dark day led to photographs of not very good quality. I still have the memories but it is harder to share them. I do have video footage which I will upload soon.
If you have any photographs from this area then do contact me! I would surely love to see them and I do recommend it as a place to visit but do keep your self up-dated on any news situations which could affect your visit and for your convenience do try to contact the Balochistan Wildlife Department or World Wildlife Fund Office within Quetta for more guidance.