India-China border dispute ‘killing thousands of pashmina goats’

LADAKH: The world is heading for a shortage of the highly prized and super-soft cashmere wool as pashmina goats that live on the “roof of the world” are caught up in the fractious border dispute between nuclear neighbours India and China.

Wool from pashmina goats reared by nomads in the inhospitable high-altitude cold desert region of Ladakh - a federal territory in India - is the most expensive and coveted cashmere in the world.

But the shaggy creatures that provide the wool are being pushed out of their grazing lands in the confrontation between the world’s two most populous nations, causing the death of tens of thousands of kids this season, locals and officials said.

“In about three years, when the newborn goats would have started yielding pashmina, we’ll see a significant drop in production,” Sonam Tsering of the All Changtang Pashmina Growers Cooperative Marketing Society told the AFP news agency.

There have been numerous face-offs and skirmishes between Chinese and Indian soldiers over their 3,500-kilometre (2,200-mile) frontier, which has never been properly demarcated.

The latest is concentrated in the Ladakh region, just opposite Tibet, with Indian officials claiming Chinese troops overstepped the boundary in recent weeks.

The alleged movements came after military face-offs at the eastern part of the border near Sikkim in May.Some traditional grazing land is lost to China each year, Tsering said.But this year, even the main winter grazing areas near KakJung, Tum Tselay, Chumar, Damchok and Korzok are out of bounds amid the heightened tensions, he added.