Question

What is the use of the hair of the sheep and goat in the cold desert of Ladakh?

Answer 1

Hint: Ladakh is a cold desert lying in the Great Himalayas, on the eastern side of Jammu and Kashmir. The Karakoram Range in the north and the Zanskar mountains in the south enclose it. Ladakh is traversed by several rivers. The Indus is the most important. Deep valleys and gorges are formed by these rivers.

Complete answer:
In the cold desert of Ladakh, goat and sheep hairs are used to make wool. Sheep, goats, yaks, and other animals produce wool. These animals that produce wool have hair on their bodies because hair keeps them warm, and wool is made from these hairy fibres.

The animals of Ladakh are wild goats, wild sheep, yak and special kinds of dogs. The animals are reared to provide for the milk, meat and hides. Yak’smilk is used to make cheese and butter. The hair of the
sheep and goats are used to make woollens.

The sheep's hairy skin has two types of fibres that make up its fleece: coarse beard hair and fine soft under-hair near to the skin. Some sheep breeds have only fine under-hair. Their parents have been chosen specifically to give birth to sheep with exclusively soft under hair.

Shearing fleece from living animals is the most common way to produce wool, however, pelts from dead sheep are occasionally processed to release the fibre, resulting in a lower-quality form known as pulled wool. The fatty substance refined to generate lanolin, a by-product used in cosmetics and ointments, is removed by cleaning the fleece.

Note: Keratin, an animal protein, makes up the majority of wool fibre. Proteins are more susceptible to chemical degradation and adverse environmental conditions than the cellulose that makes up plant fibres. The coarsest fibres have the longest length.