Now, Shahtoosh products to carry micro chips

State authorities in Jammu and Kashmir are using modern technology to check illegal trading in Shahtoosh products.

By Bilal Butt

Srinagar, July 3 : State authorities in Jammu and Kashmir are using modern technology to check illegal trading in Shahtoosh products.

These products will now onwards carry a registration number with the help of micro chips that will facilitate authorities to confirm their legal status.

Jammu and Kashmir's Chief wildlife warden, A.K. Srivastav, said: "The process has been completed, the process of certification and grant of ownership certificates and fixing of electronic chips has been completed in 90 percent of the cases where people had voluntarily declared their Shahtoosh items.

"In the remaining 10 percent cases, the department has given notices to the people to voluntarily come forward and contact the department and get the ownership certificate from the department," Srivastav added.

The department has registered 953 Shahtoosh shawls and products in Jammu and Kashmir. Of these, 464 products were from Srinagar and 489 from Jammu. No Shahtoosh product from Ladakh has been legalised.

The digital tag is tamperproof. The Wildlife department will also have a record of secret codes of shawl-owners to stop fake chips from being attached to products.

Registration of Shahtoosh products by the Wildlife department was initiated on the directions of the Supreme Court. The aim was to implement a blanket ban on Shahtoosh articles and check its illegal trade.

State wildlife officials, who carried out this state-wide survey seeking declaration of the wool in its raw form or shawls, say inserting this microchip in the shawls will be extremely helpful.

Regional wildlife warden Farooq Gilani said: "It was finally decided to go for electronic device--the transponder. It is a very small tiny needle type thing and it has a code number inside it. And that code number is read when you keep the reader on it. So when you put the reader, it depicts the country code, the user code and the signet code. And that code is different for every chip."

Shahtoosh shawls are a craze among the connoisseurs of quality dress material. Its wool is extracted from Chiru antelope that has today endangered their species.

According to international wildlife organizations, at least five animals are shot and skinned to make one shawl, which is so soft that it can be pulled through a wedding ring.

Despite this, Shahtoosh products are a major draw among elite social circles in the Western countries. Shawls made from it fetch many thousand dollars.

Huge demand for the luxurious wool caused numbers of the antelope to plunge in the wild, prompting an international ban in 1979 under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

The super-fine Shahtoosh wool is smuggled through Nepal to India. It is believed about 40,000 people are associated with Shahtoosh weaving industry here. They are known for preparing shawls of excellent quality.

Kashmiri legend has it that French emperor Napoleon presented a Shahtoosh shawl to Josephine more than 200 years ago.

Animal activists estimate the number of Chirus has fallen to only about 75,000 from one million 50 years ago and the number is falling fast because of illegal trade in the wool.

Despite prohibitions, Shahtoosh shawls are woven in Kashmir and fetch over 15,000 dollars. The shawls are worn as a status symbol garment in Europe.

ANI