Context:

This editorial is based on the news “India’s Pastoral Wool Producers Are Being Fleeced” which was published in the Live Mint. This article talks about the importance of wool, the complexities of its production, and the challenges faced by the pastoral community in India. 

Recent Incidents That Drawn Attention Over Wool

• Ladakhi pastoralists confronting Chinese soldiers over grazing rights at the border. 
• The recent snowfall and freezing temperatures in the North Western Himalayan region highlighted the necessity of sheep wool for warmth.

India’s Position in Wool 

• An Importer: It is ironic that despite being home to diverse agro-pastoralist regions and communities, India depends on imports from China, Syria, Australia, New Zealand, and even Egypt to meet over two-thirds of its wool demand. 
• Reason to Import: It is largely due to the ruinous policies of successive governments, particularly in the 1990s, coupled with the effects of climate change, the country transformed from producing woolen apparel and other goods to importing raw wool and wool waste.
• Concern: Such import has turned the country into a dumping ground for wool and wool waste.

Import-Driven Policies Are Fallacious

• Downward Trend: The indigenous production of wool has dropped from 43.5 million kg in 2016-17 to 33.6 million kg in 2022-23.
  • A key reason for this is the import substitution policies that led indigenous wool prices to come at par with wool waste prices, as a result of which many breeders shear wool only for the sake of animal health and not for commercial purposes.
• Example: Jammu and Kashmir wool, considered to be the best in the country as far as apparel grade is concerned, was sold at prices ranging from Rs 90 to Rs 110 per kg a few years ago. However, it is now being sold at distress prices of Rs 30 to Rs 35 per kg. 
  • These prices do not even cover the basic costs of shearing and transportation. 
• Promotion of Cheap Import by the Government: The government is promoting cheap imports of raw wool and wool waste from different countries and hence dismantling wool production and pastoralists’ livelihoods in the country. 
• Raised Challenges: The import duty on such wool is negligible, the concept of minimum support price for Indian wool producers is absent from policy discussions and even wool is not categorized as an agricultural product.  

Impact of Climate Change & Land Use Patterns

• Adverse Impact: These factors have led to a significant loss of grazing land and restricted the seasonal movement of pastoralists, affecting their ability to sustain their flocks.
• Unseasonal Snowfall: In July 2023, snowfall severely depleted grazing land in Himachal’s Lahaul and Spiti, leading to the near starvation of sheep flocks. 
• Dry Spells: Extreme weather events like prolonged dry spells lead to biodiversity loss and a decrease in grazing material.
• Changes in Land Use Patterns: It has significantly decreased available settling spaces for the pastoralists, thus impinging on their movements. 
  • During summers, they climb up the mountains for green pastures and then descend to the plains in the winters and traditionally settle in open spaces to rest their flock. 
  • But with grasslands and pastures being converted to real estate or acquired for development projects, these spaces are diminishing at a very fast pace.

Importance of Wool

• A Natural Fiber: It is known for its effectiveness in regulating body temperature, also boasts efficient thermal insulation and fire-retardant properties. 
• Category of Use: Wool is used in three different categories- apparel, carpets, and industrial applications like geotextiles. Only 5% of wool is utilized in the apparel industry, with the rest used for carpets and industrial uses.
• Defense Procurement: It could be a major area of wool absorption and consumption in India.
  • Presently, it is dominated by Australian wool owing to its finer grades, lightweight and with a smooth finish, typically measuring between 18-22 microns in thickness. 
    • Indian apparel-grade wool tends to be thicker at above 24 microns.
• Need to Rethink and Use: Finer thickness doesn’t necessarily equate to superior quality. The US and UK armies use coarser grade wool for their blankets and apparel, ranging from 24-26 microns, due to its superior warmth and felting (durability and resistance to wear). 
• In Himachal Pradesh, the Gaddi community uses a highly felted gardu blanket. It excels in withstanding extreme cold and repelling water during persistent rains and could easily be used by armed forces in the border regions. 

The Path Ahead

• Needs for convergence of policies and interventions from the Union and state governments as well as local communities.
• Need to recognise the importance of pastoralism. There must be a policy shift from plantations to developing grasslands for fodder.
• Fodder plants must be integrated into plantation drives rather than the current practice of indiscriminately planting exotic tree species, which is detrimental to local biodiversity. 
• Involvement of Panchayati Raj institutions and schemes like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act can be leveraged for forest reclamation that will benefit wildlife, pastoralist communities, and even domestic livestock.
• Time to recognise and effectively implement the rights of forest dwellers and pastoralists through the Forest Rights Act (FRA). It has been almost eight years since the FRA was enacted.
  • Shepherds are not considered major stakeholders in the environmental impact assessment (EIA) reports of such projects, which is a gap that must be corrected.

Conclusion

Wool production and pastoralism have been inherently linked since the dawn of our civilization. Wool production is linked with sheep rearing, and any disruption can have cascading effects even on meat production and the country’s protein supply. India needs to take strict implementations in this regard.