Beginning this season, there is a growing band of fashion police who are not necessarily kind to friends at dinner parties and weddings, don't be surprised if a glass of wine ``accidentally'' falls on your ``king of shawls' (`shah' means king and `toosh' means wool).

This exquisite wool, got from the critically endangered wild Tibetan antelope (chiru), has been prized by royalty and the rich for centuries. Napoleon is said to have presented a shahtoosh shawl to his beloved Josephine and so delighted was she that she ordered four hundred more. Sonia Gandhi wears them so does countless other celebrities in the Capital and around the globe.

It is not an egalitarian impulse that has provoked protests against shahtoosh shawls but conclusive reports that shahtoosh is now bartered for tiger bones and skins across the bordersbetween Ladakh, Tibet and Nepal, which is then smuggled to China. The tiger connection has sent tremors around Delhi society provoking letters and lectures by society ladies to friends and family all over the globe.

An outraged Gita Devi, of the Kapurthala royal family, and member of the World Wildlife Fund, promptly organised a talk by Belinda Wright, founder member of the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), to her friends at the Women's International Club, whose exalted members are wives of ambassadors, high commissioners and multi-national officials. ``We also learnt that shahtoosh is got from killing the animal mercilessly and not picked from trees and shrubs,'' says an outraged Gita Devi. ``After the lecture, many members swore they would never buy a shahtoosh again,'' she says, ``and would discourage their friends from abroad where it has become a fashion statement. Even I have told my European friends it is wrong to buy one today.''

For Wright, who has been carrying on a tireless campaignagainst shahtoosh traders, the Jammu and Kashmir Government has been the biggest stumbling block. J&K has its own Wildlife Act (it is ``not'' governed by wildlife laws in the rest of India), and the Government flouts every international wildlife law too. The chiru continues to be listed under Schedule II which permits hunting, and the state allows trade in shahtoosh.``WPSI has issued a PIL against the J&K Government to modify their Act, the next hearing is in February. We are monitoring it closely...'' she says indignantly.

Shallu Jindal, wife of the chairman of Jindal Steel and Power sent dozens of copies of the well-researched WPSI report on the dwindling chiru population and shawl trade to her family and friends in Delhi, Mumbai, Hong Kong and the US. Jindal, who got curious after reading media reports on the trade, organised a lunch and surprised guests with a lecture before the banquet. ``Many family members have stopped buying them though some friends still do, it is an addiction,'' says Jindalwoefully. ``I now plan to have a similar lunch in Mumbai soon.''

Fashion merchandiser Kitten Musker, who has had the nerve to tick off those wearing shahtoosh, observes, ``The younger generation has been more responsive. '' However, celebrated art restorer Rupika Chawla is a bit piqued. ``I have yet to see a rational, scientific and honest report regarding the trade in shahtoosh.

If Wright has proof why is she keeping it a secret, we would like to see it too. If you want to build a lobby, it shoud be coherent and clear.''Interior designer Sunita Kohli says she is aware that shahtoosh is banned, but that she will continue to wear her inherited shawls. ``I may not buy a new one but I am not going to burn my old ones,'' she says. Wright has an answer to the dilemma facing the anti-toosh brigade, ``Treasure what you have inherited but don't buy new ones.''