Guwahati, Jan. 8: If your woollens are not keeping you warm enough, then next winter try some garments made out of yak wool.
Clothes made from yak wool are 40 per cent warmer than those made out of the popular merino wool and, according to scientists, offer protection from ultraviolet rays and do not retain body odour. Moreover, yak wool is as fine and stylish as merino wool.
A group of young yak farmers in Arunachal Pradesh is being trained to make winter garments using yak wool and jute.
"We are trying to provide the yak farmers and local youths entrepreneurship avenues and develop a market for garments made of yak wool and jute. We have already made some items and the youths are being trained to add more value to the products to make them trendy. We hope the stylish products will be ready for sale under a new brand name by the end of this year," a senior scientist at the National Research Centre on Yak (NRCY), Pranab Jyoti Das, told The Telegraph today.
The training - being conducted by the NRCY, which is based in Arunachal's Dirang, and the Calcutta-based ICAR-National Institute of Research on Jute and Allied Fibre Technology (ICAR-NIRJAFT) - began in Calcutta yesterday.
The NRCY conducts scientific research and training programmes on yaks reared in high altitude areas of the Himalayan region, mainly Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir (Leh-Ladakh).
There are more than 13,700 yaks in six blocks of Tawang and two blocks of West Kameng districts.
The project is part of the institute's plan to train yak rearers to take up economically-sustainable yak husbandry.
"Yak wool is amorphous that means water doesn't go through it. Yaks have been able to develop what we believe is the best all-round performance base layer fabric for outdoor pursuits...A yak wool item can provide the same warmth as a merino wool garment and be 17 per cent lighter. It can keep you warm in temperatures of minus 40 degrees Celsius while merino wool can tackle conditions of up to minus 10 degrees Celsius," Das said.
When asked if the garments could be used in the plains, which are relatively less cold, Das said: "Why not? Then blending of yak wool and jute will be done according to the requirements of the plains."
Yak wool reduces the chances of retaining body odour because it quickly absorbs sweat and releases it into the air. Laboratory tests have shown that the fabric has 66 per cent greater air permeability than merino wool.
On the commercial viability of the products, Das said the production cost of a full men's jacket is around Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,500 and the same could be sold for around Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,000.
