NEW DELHI, May 31: Days after the Union Environment Ministry asked the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah to clamp a total ban on the trade of shahtoosh shawls as these were made after killing the endangered Tibetan antelope, the High Court has admitted a petition in this regard and served a show-cause notice on the state government.Acting on the petition moved by the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), a New Delhi-based environmental body, Justice O.P. Sharma of the J&K High Court early this week directed the state government to file a reply to the show-cause notice within six weeks.
The Union Environment Minister, Suresh P. Prabhu, in his letter dated May 20 to Farooq Abdullah had urged him to save the antelope Chiru so that ``our international image is not adversely affected.''
``This species (of antelope)'' points out Prabhu to the CM, ``is listed in Schedule 1 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, and is also covered by Appendix 1 of CITES, an international convention to which India is a party.
It has been documented by a renowned scientist from the USA, Dr George Schaller, that the antelope is killed in large numbers in Tibet for its wool and the wool is smuggled into India in violation of India's export and import policy, CITES and other laws. There is no evidence of collecting the wool of this animal from rocks and bushes as was a popular belief prevailing before scientific evidence became available.
The fact that the sale (and possession) of shahtoosh wools is permitted in J&K but not anywhere else has also created another problem for a number of tourists, Abdullah is told. ``There have been a number of seizures of shahtoosh shawls at Delhi Airport and abroad,'' says Prabhu. He has asked Abdullah to assign Chiru a status at part in its state Act with the provisions of the Central Government's Act of 1972.
The WPSI petition before Justice Sharma, which was argued by Supreme Court advocate Raj Panjwani holds that though the J&K Wildlife Protection Act permits regulated trade in shahtoosh, the state Government has not taken any regulatory.
A report published by WPSI, now attached as an annexure with the main petition, maintains that ``shahtoosh shawl is bartered at Tibet's border with India and Nepal with products of other wild animals such as tiger bones, bear bile and musk. Shahtoosh, thus, carries the blood of many other endangered animals apart from that of Chiru.''
That the Constitution of India makes it obligatory on the state to protect its wildlife and forest is the major argument of the petition.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
