The humble shuttlecock, the lifeline of badminton, has become the sport’s biggest worry with prices of imported feather shuttles more than doubling in the past year amid an acute shortage of raw material in China.

A recent article in French newspaper L’Equipe attributed the crisis to changing food habits in China, where preference for pork over duck and goose meat has reduced poultry farming, and to a global surge in badminton’s popularity.

The squeeze has forced India’s top stakeholders to admit the sport can no longer depend solely on goose and duck feathers.