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Chiru are virtually exclusive to the Tibetan Plateau in Tibet and adjoining areas of China, although they occasionally wander into India’s Ladakh region. Since 1979, chiru have been listed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), thereby banning chiru and their parts and derivatives from international trade. The People’s Republic of China gives them the highest level of legal protection under its Wildlife Protection Law, prohibiting chiru hunting and trade in chiru parts without government permission. Chiru trade also is prohibited in India under the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, except in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, which is afforded special status under India’s constitution. However, good news for chiru came in October 2000 when Jammu and Kashmir agreed to phase out and eventually ban all trade in shahtoosh.

Shahtoosh shawls crafted by Kashmiri weavers have been dowry items in northern India for centuries, and it is possible that this level of demand posed little threat to the chiru’s survival. What set the animal on the path to extinction was its elevation from dowry treasure in India to must-have accessory in world fashion centers. How this fad started is unclear. What is certain is that, at its current level, the shahtoosh craze drives a trade that the chiru cannot sustain.

Despite legal protection and trade bans, the burgeoning Western market for shahtoosh caused a dramatic increase in chiru poaching in the late 1980s and early 1990s—a connection first noted by the eminent field biologist George Schaller of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), who estimated in his 1998 book, Wildlife of the Tibetan Steppe, that “tens of thousands of animals must have been killed” to supply the trade during that time.

In 1900, the chiru population may have numbered one million. In a report issued in December 1998, China’s State Forestry Administration (SFA) cited Schaller’s estimate that fewer than 75,000 chiru remained in the wild in 1995. Based on confiscated chiru pelts and wool, along with discarded chiru carcasses found by CERS and government officials, SFA estimates that 20,000 chiru now fall victim to poaching each year.