Srinagar, March 19 (KMS): In occupied Kashmir, after the famous carpet industry under the strain from the global melt down, decades old Pashmina industry of Kashmir is also under threat and the people associated with it have started switching over to other trades.

The people associated with the ancient Pashmina trade are tangled due to neglect of industry by the and cheap copies thriving in the market. For centuries, Pashmina shawls have been woven on handloom from the shaggy coat of a goat, which lives in the heights of the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir.

Abdul Qadir, who is associated with the trade for the last more than 20 said, “Machine-made cheap products and fakes from different parts of India have badly hit Pashmina shawls and in fact all weavers. Our daily wages fell drastically and many of us had to change our business.” Qadir now runs a small grocery shop on the outskirts of Srinagar.

After a global ban on Shahtoosh, wool derived from the hair of an endangered Tibetan antelope, shawls made from Pashmina wool are considered the finest and are exported worldwide.

Nearly 50,000 Pashmina shawls are still woven in Kashmir a year. Plain hand-woven pieces are less expensive, but even these are out of the grasp of most people as compared to machine-made alternatives which are priced at up to 2,500 rupees each. “It is difficult for a customer to find what is real and what is fake,” said Iftikhar Ahmad, a shawl dealer in Lal Chowk.”

He further said that the fake Pashmina products had now infiltrated in most of the Pashmina outlets in and outside Kashmir. He said even the Kani shawl, which is pride of Kashmir, had a duplicate now. “Shahtoosh shawls are nearly extinct and the fake Indian Pashmina has invaded Kashmir,” said a wholesale Pashmina dealer. »