A Tibetan antelope in Hol Xil National Nature Reserve in northwest China's Qinghai Province.Photo:Xinhua

Chinese vendors on major e-commerce platforms are suspected of illegally selling shahtoosh shawls made from endangered Tibetan antelopes in India and Kashmir, The Paper reported on Tuesday.

According to The Paper, some vendors sell the shahtoosh shawls via livestreaming events and they introduce the fine underfur of the Tibetan antelope to the audience. The price of the scarves can be tens of thousands of yuan and some buyers also show off the shahtoosh shawls they have purchased on lifestyle community platforms.

Sun Quanhui, a scientist from World Animal Protection, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the Tibetan antelope is a national first-level protected wild animal and is protected by the Wild Animal Protection Law, which has clearly forbidden selling and purchasing national protected wild animals and products made from them.

China's Criminal Law states that anyone who illegally hunts or kills endangered wild animals that have special state protection, and anyone who illegally purchases, transports, or sells such endangered wild animals or products made from them shall be sentenced to prison for up to 10 years.

According to Sun, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, due to the large demand for Tibetan antelope cashmere products by consumers in Europe and the US, the Tibetan antelope was poached on a large scale and the population declined sharply. After years of hard work, the current Tibetan antelope population in China has recovered to more than 200,000, and wild poaching activities have also been greatly reduced.