Theft at Wildlife department godown and Chiru Trade

[Guest guest]

Source: www.wildlifesos.org

 

The theft which took place last month in the Delhi Wildlife

department's godown on Ridge Road, where seized property is kept for

evidence in court, is still to be solved. A large amount of raw

shatoosh wool, ivory, reptile skin bags and belts, and fur coats are

believed to have been stolen. The men fled with at least 10 bags of

animal furs used for making shahtoosh shawls.

 

Shahtoosh, Persian for `king of wools,' is the fine under-fleece of

the Tibetan antelope or Chiru. The Chiru is a species of deer native

to the remote Tibetan plateau and the Zinjiang and Qinghai provinces

of western China. The population of Chiru in India is completely

migratory. Chiru are adapted to living at great heights with harsh

climates and low oxygen levels. The slender, gazelle-like, chiru

stands about four feet high and males have horns 20-23 inches long.

Their coloration ranges from beige or light gray to white. Each

Tibetan Antelope yields around 125 to 150 grams of shahtoosh and each

shawl takes about 400-600 gms to make.

 

Many people with vested interests in the shahtoosh trade claim that

the wool is collected naturally, from shrubs and rocks, once the

antelope has shed its winter coat. But this is not true. The

governments of India and China have conclusively proved that the Chiru

is killed en mass to supply this expensive wool to Kashmir. The chiru

are machine gunned from a moving vehicle. Each raid leaves hundreds

dead. Most of the slaughter takes place in winter or in the early

spring when the females are calving. The adults skinned bodies are

left to rot while the young are left to starve to death as their skins

are not valuable.

 

The reason for the traders killing the animal instead of shearing it

is that fibers of the under fleece are too short to be shorn off. The

only way to make sure that the fibers are long enough for weaving is

to pluck out the fibers individually after skinning the antelope.

 

According to government estimates thousands of chiru are killed to

meet the demand for the wool. If this trend continues, the chiru,

which once had a population of many millions, will soon be extinct.

The killing of chiru and the trade in their body parts is now illegal

around the world but this doesn't dissuade the poachers or the high

end consumers. Many people are under the false impression that

shahtoosh is legal in Kashmir. In actuality, the Tibetan antelope is

listed in Schedule I of the Jammu and Kashmir Wildlife Protection Act

as well as in the Indian Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. This

qualifies it for the highest level of protection throughout the country.

 

Raw shahtoosh wool is smuggled into India from Tibet and Nepal. It is

here that this illegal activity meets with the Indian tiger trade. The

shahtoosh smugglers often exchange and barter raw wool with

traffickers from India smuggling tiger parts as well as bear gall

bladders and leopard and otter skins. Thus the huge demand for

shahtoosh in India is contributing to the extinction of both tigers

and chiru.

 

There are many alternatives to shahtoosh wool, Pashmina and Cashmere

being among the finest wool found around the world. They are obtained

from domesticated Himalayan goat without any bloodshed. The goat can

be shorn or the wool can be combed out annually. Supporting the trade

of goods made in these materials will also help the artisans of

Kashmir make a better, legal living.