Kashmir plans probe into Tibetan antelope deaths
Date: 07-Sep-01
Country: INDIA
Author: Sheikh Mushtaq
The wildlife protection group, International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), has said that poachers shoot 20,000 Chirus, a Tibetan antelope, annually for their fur despite a worldwide ban.
The IFAW said in a report released in June the super-fine shahtoosh wool was smuggled through Nepal to Kashmir where an industry of more than 40,000 people wove it into world's finest shawl.
"A three-member team from Jammu and Kashmir will visit China to see if the antelope, Chiru, is killed to obtain its wool for the manufacture of shahtoosh shawls," a state government statement said.
The statement gave no details about when the visit was planned.
Once several million strong, the population of the Tibetan antelope has shrunk to less than 75,000 and could become extinct within five years, the IAFW said.
To help save the Tibetan antelope, the IAFW had called for an end to shahtoosh weaving in Kashmir.
Shawls made from shahtoosh - which means in Persian "the king of wools" - fetch as much as $17,000 in European and U.S. cities, wildlife groups say.
A number of Kashmiri traders were arrested recently when police raided trading houses in various Indian cities and seized shahtoosh shawls.
