Cast this shawl away

THE battle against the illegal shahtoosh trade is an old one and scientists and conservationists across the world have come together to save the endangered chiru (Tibetan antelope) from extinction. It is from the soft undercoat of the chiru that shahtoosh shawls are made.

According to the latest report, Wrap up the Trade - An International Campaign to Save the Endangered Antelope, by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), the chiru population in the Tibetan plateau in the early 1990s was between 65,000 and 72,500. This is 10 per cent of the population a century ago. Some 10,000 to 20,000 antelopes are being slaughtered every day. At the current rate of slaughter, the species may be extinct in just five years.

For about a month in September 2000, IFAW and WTI investigators travelled through Nepal, China and India talking to local people, traders and others to get to the bottom of the poaching trade across international borders. Until the 1970s, few humans braved the bitter cold of the chiru's home range and the demand for shahtoosh was minimal. Hunting had little impact on the herds, the report says. But the 1980s saw a great demand for shahtoosh from the fashion industry, triggering a rapid and sharp increase in the price of shahtoosh wool.

Earlier, poachers killed only the male antelope with its thick winter coat. Now they kill females in summer when their coats are at their thinnest - and when they are pregnant or have just given birth. While hunting, the poachers usually set out in a vehicle and dazzle the chiru with the headlights. They then shoot them en masse, often with automatic weapons.

In the summer of 1998, the Wild Yak Patrol, a group almost entirely made up of ethnic Tibetans, saw the large scale massacre of Tibetan antelopes at the calving grounds in Qinghai. The director of the patrol wrote to IFAW: "Slaughtered Tibetan antelope bodies everywhere, pregnant females, babies starved to death and half eaten by vultures. Some new born chiru were still suckling the carcasses..."

Reports make interesting reading but often they do not come out with a concrete solution. But the latest report suggests alternatives for the Kashmiri weavers and others who earn their livelihood from the shahtoosh shawl business. The report recommends a special niche for Kashmir pashmina, made from the finest pashmina wool from Mongolia, as an alternative to shahtoosh.

Traditional shahtoosh weavers are willing to make the switch to pashmina. The Kashmiri weavers have a unique, traditional style that distinguishes their hand-woven shawls from the machine-made pashminas. The brand name Kashmina has been suggested for the super fine Mongolian pashmina wool shawls and stoles. There is also a suggestion that the Mongolian variety of the goat be bred in Kashmir following appropriate animal welfare standards. The Kashmina shawl or stole, to be marketed to the upper crust of society, which has been using the shahtoosh shawls so far, has to be certified by a recognised government agency as a genuine hand- spun and hand-woven product made the traditional way.

Pashmina wool comes in many grades - from coarse to superfine. The finest, produced in a limited quantity in Mongolia, can be as fine as 13 to 13.5 microns in mean fibre diameter (MFD) and compares well with shahtoosh, which has a MFD of 10 to 12 microns.

At the height of the shahtoosh boom, the Kashmir Valley had about 120 manufacturers. Today, after the fall in demand, their numbers are down to 75. Each manufacturer keeps approximately 75 separators and 300 spinners on his rolls. Women form the bulk of the workforce. Separating and spinning is looked upon as a source of additional income. However, many of the spinners are widows, whose husbands have been killed in the civil conflict in Kashmir, and shahtoosh shawl making is their only source of income.

Including designers, printers, block makers, embroiderers and shuttle makers, there are about 30,000 people involved at all stages of shahtoosh manufacture. Asked what alternative they were looking for, since trade in shahtoosh is illegal, 39 per cent wanted pashmina weaving as piece rate workers.

Some of them were already doing pashmina weaving. Others wanted loans to start other businesses, including the setting up of a pashmina weaving business. Government jobs and jobs in textile mills were their other options. However, an overwhelming 60 per cent of the shahtoosh weavers wanted to shift to pashmina weaving.

Pashmina, being a thicker and stronger wool, can be sorted and spun by machines which means manufacturers can do away with these categories of workers and go directly to the weaver.

Pashmina can also be mixed with yarn and machine woven. In fact, manufacturers from Punjab are passing off their machine-made thicker shawls as hand-woven Kashmir pashminas. That is why it is so important for Kashmiri weavers to identify themselves with the super fine, hand-woven Kashmina.

If Kashmiri weavers could be cajoled and wooed out of the shahtoosh business, half the battle to save the chiru would be won. Simultaneously, the report says, there should be better coordination among anti-poaching patrols and the fashion world also has to be lured into using other wools, which are not blood tainted.

To make anti-poaching patrols more effective, the report recommends the development of a National Tibetan Antelope Conservation Plan by China through a multi-agency approach.

Lack of funds and inadequate equipment are characteristic of the anti-poaching efforts in the Tibetan antelope's range. This must change, the report stresses.

To stem the fashion world's demand for shahtoosh, awareness campaigns have been mounted in Europe and India. Elizabeth Emanuel, fashion designer from London, and Ritu Kumar from India support these campaigns. "Those who wear or aspire to wear a shahtoosh demonstrate to all around their vanity, a lack of intelligence and complete disdain for other living creatures. Not only is killing the Tibetan antelope for fashion unnecessary and cruel, it is unfashionable," says Emanuel. "A shahtoosh is not a shawl but a shroud!"

USHA RAI

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