My family had told me I would have to hike five hours uphill if I wanted to see them. Despite this, the jhopkya often work as porter animals, and I happened to catch them passing by. I started hurrying over to inspect them, but my friend quickly slowed me down and warned me not to get too close. Apparently they might have swung their huge horns at me if I got too close. After the warning I felt a bit nervous, but my intrigue drove me a bit closer. The long tails swinging about at the flies and the crooked horns on one of them particularly caught my attention.
These chauri gai live high in the Himalayan mountains, between 2,000-5,000 meters above sea level throughout the year, but most of them stay on the higher end of the altitude range. From what I’ve gathered, these animals only reside in Tibet and Nepal.
Generally, chauri graze on subalpine and alpine pastures during the summer and then chew on trees as fodder during the winter. However, these animals depend on the will of herders to continue breeding them because they don’t exist naturally. Herders bring in yaks exclusively from Tibet for breeding chauri because they produce more milk than yaks. They can also carry heavy loads up and down the mountains because they’re stronger than other hill cattle. This also means they don’t choose where to go, because breeders raise them as a way to make a living.
