Recently, a state cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma passed a resolution to destroy and burn over 2000 rhino horns kept different treasuries in the state. Opposing the move, MLA Gogoi demanded to keep the rhino horns in a museum.
" It can not be termed as a wise decision. We seek the rhino horns should be kept in a museum. No nature lover can support this destruction," Gogoi added.
The government, on the other hand, has been preparing to burn the rhino horns at Bokakhat.
Earlier, the Dhaka based Asia-Pacific Forum of Environmental Journalists welcomed the initiative to spread the message that rhino horns do not carry any aphrodisiac quality, for which the gigantic animals are poached across the world, but it also put forward a condition that those must be scientifically confirmed as real ones. It highlighted that the horns could fetch a million dollars in illegal markets spread across east Asia and hence the issue should be resolved amicably.
Officially known as the greater one-horned rhinoceros and found primarily in India and Nepal, the rhinos are listed as vulnerable on the IUCN red list. Assam alone gives shelter to over 2,650 one-horned rhinos in its forest reserves. Kaziranga National Park is widely known for its over 2,400 rhinos along with other precious wildlife.
Years back, northeast India's active conservation group Nature's Beckon claimed that the State forest department used to sell rhino horns even after India adopted the wildlife protection act in 1972. The department allegedly sold 13 horns during 1972-73, 19 in 1973-74, 40 (1974-75), 18 (1975-76), 27 (1976-78), 42 (1977-78), 63 (1978-79), 63 (1978-79) and 61 (1979-80). The group asserted that a large share of wildlife parts from the department's stocks was sold in international markets.
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