EcoLur
The activists of the youth green movement are giving another alert. The videotape recording submitted by Mariam Sukhudyan to EcoLur shows nine hunters in the gorge of the Azar River on 12 January (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHfnETHfJQQ). Mariam Sukhudyan says: “We went hiking to the mineral sources in the gorge of the Azat River. We were climbing down when I heard several shots and saw an armed person on the other bank of the river. He noticed me shooting him, so I didn’t trace him and our whole group climbed down to the sources.
After having a swim we were on our way home when we noticed a poaching loop on the very path. After a while we were passing by the hunters. One of them had a bird in his hands, but I couldn’t make out what it exactly was. I climbed higher and kept on watching them. The hunters were eating, drinking and having fun by shooting at some targets. They noticed us and began scrutinizing through the binoculars, asking something, so we left.” (See photos).
When we visited Vorontsov Barseghyan, Director of “Khosrov Forest” Preserve, to receive some explanations, it turned out that the land area of the gorge of the River Azat fixed in the tape recording belongs to community land areas of Artashat region of Ararat Marz. A part of this territory borders upon the Khosrov Preserve, but it isn’t included even in its buffer zone. “Can you see the tent set up by the hunters? Hunting in this territory is permitted. We exercise control only within the preserve territory,” Barseghyan said. He shared the concern of “green supporters” that the hunters may pass the preserve border. “We are certainly concerned with the proximity of hunters. The migration corridors for animal passages are endangered. That’s why, first of all, we exercise control over these corridors. In the course of the last month we found 13 illegal guns similar to ones shot by Mariam Sukudyan. We destroyed all of them and passed them to the State Environmental Inspection,” Director said.
Note: As it’s known, the borders of the Khosrov Preserve have been modified recently, when vitally important land areas were alienated: the Ourtsasar Mountain and Gilan land area. It’s not excluded that the alienation of these territories from the Khosrov Forest not only narrowed the borders of the preserve, but also endangered the functioning of the buffer zone.
February 10, 2010