In a landmark
victory for wildlife conservation in India, the Jammu and
Kashmir high court has issued a judgement prohibiting trade
in shahtoosh in the state.
The public
interest petition, was filed by the Wildlife Protection
Society of India (WPSI) in May 1998 calling for a ban on the
manufacture and sale of shahtoosh in Jammu and Kashmir. The
fact that the trade was still permitted in J & K has
been the single largest hurdle in the fight to save the
endangered Tibetan antelope (or chiru).
These
antelope are slaughtered in thousands on the Tibetan plateau
in China for the collection of the precious wool, which is
then smuggled to Srinagar. From there it is smuggled out to
Pakistan, USA, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Japan and
Hong Kong.
Though the
Tibetan antelope is included in Schedule I of the central
government's Wildlife Protection Act, this law does not
apply to J & K. Apart from flouting national and
international laws and conventions, the court found that the
shahtoosh trade was being carried out in contravention of
the state's own Wildlife Act.
UNI
report sent via e-mail by Vivek
Tewari
