The Dalai Lama gets a feel of chiru skin. (PTI file picture)

New Delhi, May 21: If you’re knocking on the door that leads to the club of the rich and famous but is still being turned away because your wardrobe isn’t blessed with a shahtoosh shawl, there’s hope yet.

Banned worldwide as the fine wool can be extracted only after killing the endangered Tibetan antelope, the chiru, the shawl that costs a minimum of Rs 1.25 lakh ? and for which three animals have to give their lives ? could return to the market, Beijing and the Prime Minister’s Office willing.

In a report handed to the PMO, an expert committee has suggested breeding chirus in the Tibetan steppes jointly with China.

Once the chiru population crossed an agreed threshold, the government could get it taken off the list of endangered species, the committee, which included bureaucrats as well as wildlife activists, said.

The animals could then be harvested for making the shahtoosh, generating foreign exchange for the country and jobs in Jammu and Kashmir, where the shawls are made.

The fleece obtained by shearing a live chiru lacks the quality that sets shahtoosh apart from the pashmina or cashmere wool of the mountain goat ibex.

There is now a ban on all products derived from the chiru, including the shahtoosh whose name in Persian means “the king of wool”.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) mentions the antelope in appendix I, its highest level of protection, banning all international trade in the species and products derived from it after 1979.

Poaching reduced the number of chirus, which are slain and then shorn to make a shahtoosh, from more than a million a century ago to about 75,000 in 1995

A shahtoosh shawl measuring 36 inches by 81 inches — made from the wool of three to five chirus — used to cost anywhere between Rs 1.25 lakh and Rs 2.07 lakh

India’s Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, also places a blanket ban on manufacture and trade of shahtoosh and all other chiru products, such as its horns which were used to prepare traditional medicines.

Possession of shahtoosh is allowed only if it predates the ban and is registered with the government, but many of the rich and fashionable are believed to have the banned shawl illegally in their wardrobes.

According to the last quoted international prices, in 2000, a single shahtoosh shawl measuring 36 inches by 81 inches ? made from the wool of three to five slain chirus ? cost anywhere between $2,450 and $4,600 (Rs 1.25 lakh and Rs 2.07 lakh).

The chiru population is believed to have dropped from more than a million a century ago to about 75,000 in 1995, mainly because of poaching.

The committee proposed that following a clearance from the PMO, the foreign ministry could approach Beijing about jointly breeding the chiru in the vast and arid altitudes of the Tibetan plateau.

The committee noted that the chiru cannot be reared on the part of the Tibetan plateau that falls within the Indian territory of Ladakh, for the antelope needs tracts spread across thousands of kilometres to graze and breed. Even minor changes to its habitat degrade the quality of its wool. Neither does the chiru breed in captivity.

There is no bar to the antelope migrating between Chinese and Indian territories, though, which it constantly does.

The expert committee was headed by a senior textile ministry official and had members from the Union and Jammu and Kashmir environment ministries, the J&K Chamber of Commerce, the state industry department and two NGOs: Wildlife Trust and Wildlife Society of India.