J&K: panel seeks lifting of ban on Shahtoosh trade

A parliamentary committee led by Congress MP Renuka Chowdhury has recommended that a ban on trade in Shahtoosh, that is derived from Chiru, an endangered species, be effectively lifted in Jammu and Kashmir.

Shahtoosh, which means “king of wools” in Persian, is woven from the underfur of Chiru and is considered one of the finest wools being light yet very warm. Trade in parts from Chiru also know as the Tibetan antelope was banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora in 1975, to which India is party. In 2000, Jammu and Kashmir banned Shahtoosh trade.

The committee recommended that the environment ministry “should conserve and breed the chiru goat and vast tract of land should be utilised for conserving the chiru goats. These goats can then be given to the shawl makers for collecting hair.”

Traders in the valley support such a move, but environmentalists vehemently oppose the proposal.

“It will be a good thing if they revise the ban, there was a large section of people who were dependent on this industry,’ Sajjad Gul, spokesperson for the Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federation, said.

Gul initially said that the Chiru would have to be killed to obtain in the wool but changed his stance on being prompted by a colleague. “It is not necessary to kill the Chiru to get the wool,” he said, though “it is true that poachers kill them for the wool.”

“Those who peddle shahtoosh have long been attempting to fool consumers into believing that the animals are not killed,” Poorva Joshipura, CEO, PETA India, said.

“However, it takes the lives of three chirus for one shawl, and this is why these animals have been the target of poachers. Because the fur used comes from the undercoat of the animal, the animal is killed.”

Chirus are classified as “near threatened” under the IUCN’s red list because their population have dwindled to about 75,000 in recent years. They are found mostly in the Tibetan plateau, all over China, and in smaller numbers in north-eastern Ladakh. They have become disappeared from Nepal, where they were earlier found.

Their underfur allows them to keep warm in the chilly upper reaches of the Himalayas in India.

Environmentalists argue that even if it was possible to extract the wool without actually killing the animal snatching their protective cover amounts to “cruelty.”

“Chirus have fur because they need it for their own protection, so even if it was possible to farm them and to yank the fur off of their bodies, this would still result in pain and cruelty,” Joshipura said.

It requires 3-4 chirus to obtain enough fur to make one shawl. These shawls are allegedly worth $1000 to $5000 and can sell for as much as $20,000 in the international market.