From wildhaathi@YAHOO.COM Sun Oct 19 14:16:51 2003
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 08:32:11 -0700
From: Ashok Kumar
To: nathistory-india@Princeton.EDU
Subject: Re: Report on Chiru Antelope (WCS-Dr. George Schaller)
[ Part 1, Text/PLAIN 34 lines. ]
[ Unable to print this part. ]
Before anyone gets the impression that all is well with the Tibetan
antelope, it needs to be clarified that this survey by Dr.George Schaller
related to a small part of Tibetan platue, and the increase in numbers is
related to this population only.
The overall problem of Tibetan antelope remains unchanged. Raw Shahtoosh
wool is still being smuggled from Tibet to Nepal and from there to India
though enhanced enforcement has made smuggling difficult. There is much
greater vigilance on the Nepal-Uttaranchal border specially at Dharchula,
but smugglers will try other routes.Shahtoosh shawls are still being
woven in J&K despite uplifting of T.antelope to Schedule I of J&K
wildlife Protection Act and the J&K government has taken no measures to
implement the ban. Wildlife Trust of India has filed a case in the
Supreme Court against theGovernment of J&K based on reliable information
that no steps have been taken on implementation. The case comes up for
the first hearing on 5 November 2003
Ashok Kumar
NALINM@AOL.COM wrote:
Fwd - News Report
--------------------------
`Tibetan antelope population increasing'
By Aarti Dhar NEW DELHI SEPT. 14.
There is some good news for wildlife lovers. Several species
of wildlife on the Tibetan plateau have shown an increase in
the number over the past decade. This includes the most
sought-after but severely-threatened Tibetan Antelope or
Chiru whose wool is used to make the exotic shahtoosh. A
recent study by renowned biologist, George Schaller, found
`increasing population of Tibetan Antelope or Chiru, Tibetan
gazelle, wild ass and wild yak'.
The study had been sponsored by the New York-based Wildlife
Conservation Society in collaboration with the Tibetan
Forestry Department, Peking University and Shanghai's East
China Normal University. Accordin! g to Dr. Schaller's study,
the number of Chiru antelopes has increased from 3,900 in
1991 to 5,890 while wild ass or kiang population had jumped
to 2,241 from 1,224.
Similarly, Tibetan gazelles has grown from 352 to 487, and
the number of wild yak has risen from a mere 13 to an
estimated 187. It was Dr. Schaller who had detected illegal
hunting of Tibetan antelopes and other wildlife species in
the Chang Tang region of the Tibetan plateau that had brought
them to the brink of extinction about a decade ago.
Among these, the most vulnerable was the Tibetan antelope
which yield the finest wool in the world which was smuggled
into Kashmir for weaving into shahtoosh. Shahtoosh, now
banned globally, is sold for as much as 15,000 dollars per
shawl. Ten years down the line, Dr. Schaller visited the
Tibetan plateau some months ago, to realise that there was a
strict enforcement of restrictions on hunting of these
endangered species by the Chinese police that had improved
their survival rate. The survey attributes this success to
the Tibet Forestry Department that has made protection of
wildlife priority.
http://www.hindu.com/2003/09/15/stories/2003091507910500.htm
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