Premium Chyangras to cost Rs. 50,000

By Hari Krishna Sharma, Muktinath (Mustang), Oct. 11: Gyan Kumar Shrestha, a trader who travelled from Kathmandu to Mustang to buy chyangra (Himalayan Mountain goats) for Dashain, purchased premium-quality goats directly from local farmers’ sheds at Rs. 37,000 each.

With heavy snowfall, floods, landslides and river erosion blocking the Beni-Jomsom Road section, Shrestha travelled to Mustang by air from Pokhara to purchase the goats. 

He said that premium-quality chyangra bought from farmers and local traders arriving from Dolpa and Upper Mustang would cost consumers as much as Rs. 50,000 each by the time they reached the market.

Shyam Bhakta Shrestha, who has been involved in the sheep and chyangra trade for the past 25 years, said prices had been rising every year.

“Production has not been able to meet demand, and transporting the animals from the mountain region to Kathmandu is also expensive,” he said.

Angyal Gurung, a farmer from Chhoser of Lomanthang-1, Upper Mustang, has reached Dana of Annapurna Rural Municipality-3, Myagdi, with 700 chyangra after a nine-day journey on foot.