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Guwahati, Nov. 20 (IANS): Involving six countries, the illegal trade in rhino horns has assumed alarming proportions to meet the strong demand for carved rhino horn products, contrary to the popular belief that the main market for rhino horns is driven by its 'medicinal values, experts said.
With a series of steps including stepped up vigil, rhino poaching has been drastically curtailed since 2017 in Assam, which is home to 71 per cent of the world's one-horn rhino population.
Quoting a report released during the ongoing CITES convention in Panama City (November 14-25), bio-diversity expert Bibhab Kumar Talukdar said the Vietnamese wanted the rhino horn for use in health tonics and hangover cures.
Referring to the report, Talukdar pointed out that more than 7.5 tonnes of rhino horns was seized globally during the decade.
Although more than 50 countries and territories were implicated in rhino horn trafficking over the decade, six countries -- South Africa, Mozambique, Malaysia, Hong Kong SAR, Vietnam and China -- have dominated the supply chain as source, transit and destination locations, the report stated.
The report was submitted by the UK on behalf of the Wildlife Justice Commission and the World Wide Fund for Nature in relation to agenda item 75 in the current CITES Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species on Wild Fauna and Flora.
Talukdar, who is a member of the Asian Rhino Specialist Group and Secretary General and CEO of biodiversity conservation organisation "Aaranyak", told IANS that most of the rhino horns entering Asian markets are of two species of African rhinos.
He feels that as the user markets of rhino horns are in Asia and as the population of three species of Asian rhinos is smaller than that of two species of African rhinos, the Asian rhino range countries need to be more vigilant to protect the small population.
Though Vietnam is known to be a primary destination for rhino horns, a substantial portion of rhino horns entering Vietnam is sold to Chinese buyers and smuggled overland to China, where rhino horn products are used as jewellery and decorative artefacts, the report said.
Assam's Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve (KNPTR), India's seventh Unesco world heritage site, is home to more than 2,600 Indian rhinos.
The park, which is spread across five districts of Assam -- Golaghat, Nagaon, Sonitpur, Biswanath and Karbi Anglong -- is not just the home of one-horned rhinos, but also of Royal Bengal tigers, Asian elephants, wild buffaloes and many more animal species. It is also the habitat of thousands of birds from over 125 species.
According to Assam's Forest and Wildlife officials, rhino poaching in Assam was the highest in 2013 and 2014, with 27 rhinos poached each year.
In 2015 poachers killed 17 one-horned rhinos and 18 rhinos were killed in 2016 in the state's national parks and wildlife sanctuaries.
The numbers have decreased since 2017 and according to the state government data, only one rhino was killed by poachers in Kaziranga National Park last year.
After an over a month long elaborate process of reconciliation of horns stored in seven treasuries in different parts of Assam, on the occasion of World Rhino Day on September 22 last year, the state government burnt 2,479 rhino horns at a public function to destroy the world's largest stockpile of rhino horns in order to bust the myth that they have amazing medicinal value.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said: "One-horned rhino is not only integral to our civilisation, but also a symbol of our prized heritage and identity. We are preserving 94 rhino horns for display at a museum to be set up at the Kaziranga National Park. The use of rhino horns for medicinal purposes is a myth."
According to forest and wildlife officials, among the reconciled rhino horns, the heaviest horn weighed 3.05 kg, while the average weight of the horns was 560 gm.
They said that of these horns, the longest one was 57 cm, with an average standing height of 13.77 cm.
Prior to selecting the horns, the process of reconciliation of the horns stored in seven treasuries had been carried out by a committee chaired by Assam's Chief Wildlife Warden and Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), Mahendra Kumar Yadav, with the help of a technical committee and seven zonal committees.
The officials said that the entire process was carried out in accordance with the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, while a public hearing on the rhino horn burning had been held on August 29 last year.