Snow threatens Kashmir's pashmina goats

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2008

SRINAGAR, India (AFP) — Some 150,000 rare Himalayan goats whose wool is used to make Indian Kashmir's famed pashmina shawls are at risk of dying due to heavy snow blanketing the region, officials warned on Wednesday.

The goats' pastures, spread over the mountains of the Changthang area of the Ladakh region bordering China, have been covered by unusually deep snow and farmers are fast running out of fodder, the officials said.

"Around 150,000 pashmina goats are at the risk of death as their pastures have been covered by heavy snow," Tsering Dorjay, chairman of the Ladakh Hill Development Council, said by telephone from the regional capital Leh.

The mountain goats produce wool for Kashmir's feather-light pashmina shawls which are exported to Europe, the Middle...