Shahtoosh Wool Craze Spells Doom For Tibet's Chiru
10/21/99
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Shahtoosh Wool Craze Spells Doom For Tibet's Chiru
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: October 21, 1999
Byline: Tan Ee Lyn
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Conservationists warned Thursday that growing
trade in shahtoosh wool must stop or the Tibetan antelope, or chiru,
will be hunted to extinction.
Some 20,000 of the wild animals that live on China's Tibetan Plateau
are killed each year -- either shot in herds by automatic weapons or
caught in leg-hold traps -- for their prized coats, the World Wide
Fund for Nature said.
Only an estimated 75,000 remain in the wild.
Dispelling fairytale myths that shepherds follow chiru herds to pluck
their precious hair from the bushes they brush against while grazing,
WWF's Judy Mills said: ``Chiru cannot be shorn or plucked. This
animal must be killed to obtain its hair.''
``We're asking people to say 'no' to shahtoosh, not to sell it, not
to buy it, not to wear it,'' Mills said at a news conference.
Shahtoosh, which in Persian means ``from nature and fit for a king,''
has long been acknowledged as the ``king of wool.''
So fine it measures just three-quarters the width of cashmere and
one-fifth that of human hair, shahtoosh is smuggled into Kashmir to
be weaved into shawls and scarves. These products have long been used
as prized dowry items in India.
Since the 1980s, they have become compulsory accessories of the rich
and fashionable, despite a ban on its international trade since 1979
under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of
Wild Fauna and Flora.
The coats of between three and five chirus are needed for one single
shawl, which could command up to US$5,000.
``By the mid-90s, rich women of Hong Kong known as ''tai-tais'' were
hosting home sales and private showings of shahtoosh...not the least
bit furtive about their passion,'' Mills said.
Demand is keen not only in Hong Kong, but major fashion centers in
France, Italy and Spain and buyers were known to fly regularly to
Delhi for private showings, she said.
Wildlife expert Wong How Man of the China Exploration & Research
Society, who makes regular field trips to the Tibetan Plateau, spoke
of the gore and horror surrounding the soft and warm shawls that
celebrities drape over their ball gowns.
``Poachers gun them down in herds and then make off at once with
their coats, leaving the carcasses behind,'' Wong said.
During a trip in June, a herd of 909 chiru carcasses were found in
one spot. A third had been expectant mothers.
``It's evident the killing's escalated. In 1991, lots were seen on
the plateau. Now it's very difficult to spot them,'' Wong said,
adding that profits were handsome enough for poachers.
Many of the poachers are Tibetans, armed with sophisticated weapons
and vehicles.