New Delhi: The manufacture of shahtoosh shawls has finally been banned in the state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), the only place in the world where they have been woven for centuries. The historic law making this possible was notified earlier this week, giving a new lease of life to the Tibetan antelope, which was being slaughtered to extinction in China to extract the costliest of wools in theworld.

Shahtoosh is an emotive issue in Kashmir employing almost 15,000 people, mainly women. Succesive governments had been falling shy of banning shahtoosh fearing public backlash.The Widlife Trust of India (WTI) had filed two cases in the Jammu High Court asking the government to take concrete steps.

Promulgating an amendment to its laws, the J&K Assembly passed an act which places the Tibetan antelope or chiru (Panthelops hodgsonii) in Schedule I of the Jammu and Kashmir Wildlife (Protection) Act, giving it the highest protection, thereby making any use of its derivatives punishable by law. The chiru was earlier in Schedule II of the Act, which made trade or use of its derivatives possible with license.

“This is the final step in our fight against shahtoosh. It is now up to the government of J&K to implement this ban,” said Mr Ashok Kumar, a trustee of the Wildlife Trust of India, which in partnership with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), has been at the forefront of this international campaign.

According to official Chinese estimates almost 20,000 chiru are killed annually, and its hair plucked to be smuggled into Kashmir through the mountain passes of Nepal and recently by air through China and Singapore. In Kashmir, this wool is woven into gossamer thin shawls weighing less than 150 grams that are warm enough for sub-zero temperatures. The shawls, which were worn by traditional north Indian families, became a fashion statement in the West, which led to the mass scale slaughter of the Chiru. Less than 75,000 animals remain today.