Trade in the luxurious shahtoosh shawls, sought by the rich and famous as well as being a traditional dowry item in north India, is outlawed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

India passed a ban in 1976 on shahtoosh made from the fur of the chiru, or Tibetan antelope. In 2002, the previous state government of Jammu and Kashmir finally followed suit under heavy pressure from environmentalists.

Now, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, the restive state where the weaving of shahtoosh shawls has traditionally been centred, wants to overturn the ban on the shawls that cost thousands of dollars.

"There's a need to remove the misconception that the antelope is killed to obtain the wool," he said. "This notion has been fed to the world."

Sayeed and weavers in Kashmir say that any of the wool used in Kashmir for the shawls comes from hair caught on bushes shed by the chiru, which dwells mainly in the remote high desert Tibetan plains, and is transported to China's borders with India by Tibetan nomads using mules and other beasts of burden.

The Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) dismisses Sayeed's statements.

"There's not a bush in sight where they live," said WTI director Aniruttha Mookerjee, who has visited the Tibetan plains.

The WTI says three to five chiru must die to provide 10 to 12 ounces of wool for a shawl, whose fibres are so fine the garment can be pulled through a ring, giving it the name "ring shawl".

"Some lobby is trying to mislead the chief minister," Mookerjee said, adding, "We know shahtoosh is an emotive issue in Kashmir."

The government says nearly 50,000 people depend on shahtoosh weaving and trade in Kashmir. But the WTI says its own census of those dependent on the shahtoosh trade shows they number around 14,000.

The shawls are made from the fine-haired underlayer hugging the chiru's skin beneath its coarse fur. The animals are skinned and workers pluck the pelts, then separate the fine hair -- a fifth of the width of human hair -- from the "guard" or coarse hair covering the animal.

"You can't pull out the chiru's short fine hair underlayer unless you kill the animal," Mookerjee said.

In 1900, there were an estimated one million chirus. Now there are believed to be fewer than 75,000, although China protects them under its wildlife act.

They were traditionally hunted for their meat, and shawls made from their fur were only a byproduct. Demand for the shawls ignited in the 1970s and 1980s when westerners discovered their feathery lightness, Mookerjee said.

Part of the problem now, Kashmiri weavers and traders say, is that the Kashmiri government has made no attempt to find them other jobs. Mookerjee said the WTI was sending a report to the Kashmiri government suggesting alternate work.

However, there is still some clandestine manufacture of shahtoosh shawls in Kashmir, the global wildlife trade monitoring arm of the World Wildlife TRAFFIC says.

But some weavers in Kashmir, known for their nimble fingers, have started making pashmina shawls instead with wool from domestic goats in the state's desert region of Ladakh.

Pashmina is also prized for its soft warmth but is made in various parts of the world. The WTI is seeking to brand pashmina shawls made in Kashmir under the name "Kashmina" to give weavers a similar sense of pride that they had in making shahtoosh shawls.

"The traditional pashmina shawl is a wonderful piece of work and lasts for years," said Mookerjee.

Sayeed, however, is unconvinced and vows to fight the ban in India's Supreme Court. "It's important the court is informed that no wildlife law is violated in Kashmir in manufacturing shahtoosh shawls."

In any event, even if the ban was overturned in India, due to the international outlawing of trade in shahtoosh, shawl buyers could find their purchase seized at customs when they go home, Mookerjee added.

"The trade will never come back. There are too many roadblocks in the way."

TERRA.WIRE