Investigation of Shahtoosh Shawl Trade in Manali, Himachal Pradesh

On 26th morning I left for Jammu from Udhampur. I reached Jammu at 1:30 pm. As there were only night buses to Manali from Jammu, I decided to spend the rest of the day surveying the shops at Raghunath market. Some of the informers I have worked with before had made me aware of presence of some shops in Raghunath market that sell leopard claws. Hence, I thought of making the best use of the time before boarding a bus to Manali. Several shops were closed as it was a Sunday. I chose a shop dealing with puja materials. I pretended to be new to the area, one who has recently joined a private bank in Jammu. I told him that I am looking for claws, which are required for puja purposed in my house. He showed me two claws but both of them were fake. I visited two other shops too. Although I did not see any original claws at any shop on 26th December 08 at Raghunath Market in Jammu, but as per the reports that I had been provided, I feel illegal wildlife trade (leopard claws) is thriving in the area.

At 9:30pm in the night I started from Jammu to Manali. The bus took 15 hours to reach Manali. I got down 1 km before reaching Manali town. I entered a roadside tea stall, and through casual talks tried to collect vital information about Sahtoosh shawl trade in the area. The teal stall owner told me that there are many shawl shops run by Kashmiris in Manali, but very few of them deal with Sahtoosh shawl, as they are aware that this is an illegal business.
From there I took an auto to hotel and I tried to become friendly with the auto driver and asked about the illegal wildlife trade. He informed me that there is one shop near Hidamba Temple which deals with Sahtoosh shawl, but he was not sure. According to him other illegal wildlife trade is very common in the area. I decided to stay in a hotel near Hidamba temple and asked the auto driver to pick me up after an hour. After an hour’s break at the hotel, I went to Hidamba temple as soon as the ame auto arrived.

I didn't go to the shops directly to avoid suspicion but chose to visit the temple to pay my regards to Mata Hidamba. Inside the temple campus I meet a local tea-seller named Budhiram. According to him Sahtoosh shawl trade was very common in the area till 2005, but after that it declined. Only two or three shops deal with Sahtoosh shawl. When I asked him why it is like this, then he informed me that in 2005 a foreign lady visited a shop dealing with Sahtoosh shawls, she pretended as a buyer and then she got the Kashmiri shop owner arrested. After the Kashmiri shop owners who deal with Sahtoosh shawls take extreme precaution in striking deals. I gave him a hundred rupees and tried to get more information and his report matched with the auto driver’s. Wildlife trade is very common in the area especially bear gall bladder trade.

After collecting information from Budhiram I went to the kashmiri shop in front of Hidamba temple gate. I told the shop owner, Sheikh, that I was working in cement factory in Khrew, Srinagar and recently got transferred to Delhi. As I am able to speak some Kashmiri and I am acquainted with most of the places in Kashmir I was able to win some confidence of the shopowner with my knowledge of the language and the places. I told him that my boss is a foreigner and she wants to visit Manali in February and she would like to buy some shawls. I added that if he could help me, then I may get a promotion. He said he didn’t have any shawl in his shop, but he can try to get a few from other Kashmiri shop keepers in Manali. He called one or two of them in front of me, but it was clear from what I heard – the other shop keepers had answered in the negative. I could understand that he was also being warned by them and was being made aware of a trap to arrest him. But this shop keeper was very confident about me so he told me whenever I want I can call him and that he would get a material for me from Srinagar.

After that at 3:30 PM I took a shared-taxi to Kangda, there were only three Kashmiri shawl shops open in McLyod Ganj. I entered a shop and enquired about sahtoosh shawl. I was shown Pashmina and semi-Pashmina shawls as sahtoosh shawl which I could immediately identify as fakes. When I questioned about the this the shop owner accepted that those were not original sahtoosh shawls. He informed me that it is illegal to deal with the sahtoosh shawls and people like us come and enquire about the shawls and get the dealers arrested. After convincing him for a long time and being able to win a bit of his confidence, I was informed that this is not the time when we can get sahtoosh shawl. He told me to come between August - October as that is the time when most of the foreign tourists arrive in Kashmir and foreigners are the main buyers of these shawls.

I tried to collect some information from some other locals at the Manali bus stand too, and then I took a bus back to Delhi and on 31st afternoon I reached Delhi.

Recommendations:
-No doubt some kashmiri shops are dealing with sahtoosh shawl, but it is not so common in the area after the seizure done in 2005.
- Another visit has to be planned between August-October to collect more information on the sahtoosh shawl trade.
-Along with Himachal Pradesh, survey should be done at Srinagar as it is from there that all the sahtoosh shawls are sent to other markets.
-Other illegal wildlife trade is very common in the area and at least a twenty days visit should be planned to collect comprehensive and rich data related to the issue of wildlife trade in the area.