PHOTOS: India - China Himalayan standoff deadly for cashmere herds

Antagonisms between Indian and Chinese troops high in the Himalayas are taking a dire toll on traditional goat herds that supply the world’s finest, most expensive cashmere. This week, a deadly brawl between Indian and Chinese soldiers caused the deaths of at least 20 Indian soldiers in the Galwan Valley, an achingly beautiful landscape that is part of a border region that has been disputed for decades because of its strategic importance as the world’s highest landing ground. The months-long military standoff between the Asian giants is hurting local communities due to the loss of tens of thousands of Himalayan goat kids died because they couldn’t reach traditional winter grazing lands, officials and residents said.

Updated on: Jun 19, 2020 1:23 PM IST

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An artisan checks the quality of a pashmina shawl inside his home in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Saturday, June 13, 2020. (AP)

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Gulzar Ahmed Want, a Kashmiri artisan, weaves a pashmina shawl on a loom inside his home in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir. (AP)

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Pashmina threads spun on plastic straws lie inside a wooden box near a loom in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir. (AP)

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Abdul Later Allie, a Kashmiri artisan, checks the quality of pashmina shawls inside his home in Srinagar. (AP)

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Pashmina threads hang on a loom in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir. (AP)

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In this July 21, 2007, file photo, an elderly man belonging to the Changpa, the nomadic herders who rear the Pashmina goats, holds his Himalayan goat as his son cuts its horn that was hurting the animal's eye in Kharnak, some 185 kilometers (116 miles) from Leh, India. (AP)