New Delhi: The Union environment ministry has turned down a suggestion by a Parliamentary panel to consider captive breeding of the Tibetan antelope, a protected species once harvested for shahtoosh shawls, saying it will serve neither conservation nor weavers' interests.

The ministry has told the parliamentary standing committee on science, technology and environment that the Tibetan antelope is critically endangered and accorded the highest degree of protection and any attempt to breed the animal would be "neither economical nor feasible."

The parliamentary panel's report, tabled in the Rajya Sabha earlier this week, outlines its recommendation for breeding the antelope made to the ministry last year and the response received from them.

The Tibetan antelope is protected under India's Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, which bans any hunting or trade in its parts and products, including shawls. But the parliamentary panel had in March 2017 asked the ministry to consider efforts to breed the animal to add "sustainable livelihood opportunities" for shawl-makers in Jammu and Kashmir.

The panel had cited antelope breeding efforts in China and Mongolia in its recommendation.

But the environment ministry has pointed out that it takes three to five hides to make a single shawl and the antelopes have to be killed because the underfur, or wool used to make the shawl, cannot be sheared for its extraction.

"Captive rearing of (the) Tibetan antelope will neither serve the purpose of conservation, nor can (it) provide raw material for weavers as these animals cannot be bred in captivity and the animals have to be killed to collect their wool to make the shawls," the ministry said in its response.

The ministry said the antelope inhabits the high altitude regions of Ladakh and the Tibetan plateau and requires a large expanse of land for movement to fulfill its feeding and breeding requirements. The quality of its wool depends on the cold and harsh climatic conditions at altitudes of between 3,800 metres and 5,500 metres.

Maintaining the antelopes below this altitude will not serve any purpose, the ministry said. And any attempt at conservation breeding in Ladakh at altitudes of above 3,800 metres may be "neither economical nor feasible" because humans cannot be posted there continuously for more than two to three months.

A wildlife specialist has expressed surprise at the panel's recommendation. "I'm a bit surprised that this was brought up in 2017 - it is over four decades since the ban on the shahtoosh trade," said Kartick Satyanarayan, co-founder of the Wildlife SOS, a non-government agency that works for animals in distress.

"It is unlikely that the expertise of the traditional shahtoosh shawl-makers even exists today - they would have already moved to alternative trades," Satyanarayan said.

The ministry also told the parliamentary panel that it has learnt that the Chinese attempts at breeding the antelope have failed because of "poor survival rates."