MUSTANG, Nov 2: For the Tihar celebrations, the country received a supply of 5,000 mountain goats from Mustang as compared to 21,000 during the Bada Dashain festival. 

The District Agriculture Development Office, Mustang has been annually recording the number of mountain goats leaving Mustang for Dashain and Tihar. Non – gazetted second class employee at the Office, Rajendra Samanta, said 5,000 mountain goats were supplied from Mustang during Tihar festival. 

"This is much less as compared to the supply during last Tihar," he said, adding "The supply was less than during the Dashain this season due to the culture of consuming less meat during Tihar." 

The upper Mustang region is seeing an increase in the commercial production of mountain goats. The Lomanthang, Chosera, Chonhup, Dhami, Muktinath and Surkhang VDCs are known to be pocket areas for production of mountain goats. 

The mountain goats supplied during Dashain had not been sold out completely which is the reason why the supply was less during Tihar, District Animal Service Office Chief, Dr Nanda Lal Burma said. 

The Mustang's mountain goats are usually supplied to Beni, Pokhara, Baglung, Kushma, Chitwan and Kathmandu. RSS