Sometimes the rhinos are neutralised with tranquiliser bullets and the horns are sawn off while the rhino is still alive. Poachers sneak into the Kaziranga and other rhino sanctuaries in gangs, armed with assault rifles and even night vision equipment. But the illegal trading chain that extends all the way to Southeast Asia and China includes men keen on making a fast buck – including migrant boatmen who ship out the horns, North Indian traders who smuggle the illegal consignments, policemen who are paid off to look the other way, and Chinese importers supplying the traditional medicine producers. The poachers are generally drawn from local Karbi and Naga tribesmen known for their sharpshooting skills and their knowledge of the local terrain. But as the babies matured and their horns grew, they attracted poachers in ever larger numbers. Hundreds of baby rhinos could be seen roaming the wilds of Kaziranga, Oraon and Pobitara sanctuaries. The biggest increase in Kaziranga’s – and Assam’s – rhino population came in the mid-1990s, when park officials reported a “baby boom”. “ The poachers kill the rhino and immediately saw off the horn. “Growing numbers of rhinos attracted poachers looking for the prized horn.” “Kaziranga is a success story in endangered animal conservation, but the problems were soon to come,” says Hussain. Twenty years later, their numbers had quadrupled. In 1966, when it was earmarked as a conservation site for the endangered animal, the sanctuary had fewer than 400 rhinos. Kaziranga sits on a marshy floodplain watered by the Brahmaputra River and its tributaries. They are used in several East Asian countries as medicine, and, once powdered, the horns are valued as an aphrodisiac. ![]() Lucrative horns The rhinos are killed because a full-grown horn fetches a huge price in Asian black markets, with officials from the Wildlife Trust of India putting the figure between $90,000 to $100,000 for an average-sized horn. The state has three other game sanctuaries for rhinos, but Kaziranga is the largest. That comprises more than 80 per cent of the total population of single-horned Indian rhinos. Keep reading list of 4 items list 1 of 4 Large methane gas leak in Baltic Sea discovered list 2 of 4 Philippines mulls court action against Beijing in South China Sea dispute list 3 of 4 Two activists freed in Philippines after being ‘abducted by the military’ list 4 of 4 ‘Ready to die’: Indonesia Eco-City row grows as eviction deadline looms end of listĪssam’s Kaziranga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is home to 2,290 rhinos, according to statistics from the end of 2011.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |