Burning Desire
4th March 2010
Assam will make a strong international statement in March when it burns nearly 1,500 rhino horns. The public burning is aimed at sending the message that the state if fully committed to rhino conservation. The rhino horns – lying in different treasuries and strong rooms across Assam – were either seized from poachers and smugglers or collected from carcasses of rhinos that died a natural death.
The public burning of such a huge quantity of rhino horns will not only show Assam’s commitment to conservation but it will send an important message to the clandestine wildlife traders and believers of traditional medicines that rhino horn does not have any monetary or medicinal value.
Bibhab Talukdar, secretary general of wildlife NGO, Aaranyak, with whom the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF) work in Assam, said that the decision taken by the state government “was a progressive step that sent a strong signal to the international community.”
“The whole event of the burning of horns should be transparent and well documented,” he added.
Some of the rhino horns have been lying in treasuries since 1978 when its sale in Assam was banned.
“But, many of the horns have been added to the stockpiles only recently, testament to the ongoing and devastating effect that poaching is having on India’s one-horned rhino population,” adds CEO of DSWF, Melanie Shepherd.
DSWF is working in partnership with Aaranyak to help protect Assam’s one-horned rhino population and the tigers that share the pristine habitat of Kaziranga National Park.
For more about the project click here
