Shawl of shame

Shawl of shame

Good sense seems to have prevailed in Srinagar at long last, with the Farooq Abdullah government having decided to ban the manufacture and trade in shahtoosh shawls, made from the fine hair of the slaughtered Tibetan antelope, an endangered species. Although India is a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), it has thus far been powerless to enforce the ban on shahtoosh manufacture and trade in J&K, since the provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 does not extend to that state.

This loophole allowed the shahtoosh trade in J&K to continue unhindered, even while the police and wildlife administrators were forced to crack down on it in the rest of the country.But time is clearly running out for a trade that may go back hundreds of years but is utterly out of sync with the contemporary concern for wildlife preservation. In any case, in an earlier era, the garnering of the wool of the Tibetan antelope was done in a far more eco-friendly manner. The mass demands of a modern market encouraged the large-scale culling of this already rare species and hastened its decline.

There was, therefore, just no getting away from the fact that the shahtoosh invited universal condemnation and trade in it could only have survived through underhand and illegal measures; that, sooner or later, the J&K government would have had to succumb to the mood of the times and take unilateral measures to ban it. In fact, the J&K High Court, in response to a PIL filed against the shahtoosh trade, was recently constrained to advise the state government to regulate it. It is against this background that the outcry against the ban in J&K must be perceived.

The shahtoosh lobby in the state is a powerful and influential one. There is some truth in its argument that a ban of this kind will affect the lives and livelihoods of tens of thousands of people who are associated with the shahtoosh sector who suddenly find themselves left high and dry. But the unassailable fact is that the trade does not have a future in any case, given the worldwide campaign against it. The recent one conducted by global wildlife activists on the Internet is only one among numerous and effective initiatives to save the Tibetan antelope and end the cruel trade that lives off its hide.

Therefore, while the Centre could sympathetically consider the request of the J&K government for a one-time waiver of the ban so that shahtoosh stocks available with traders could be disposed of, the Abdullah government would be advised to stand firm in its resolve to ban it. Further, it should ensure that the ban actually works and that the trade is not driven underground, as happens so often when bans of any kind are imposed. The state government should also, simultaneously, explore ways to secure the livelihoods of artisans involved in the trade after consulting them and understanding their tribulations and requirements.