On World Rhino Day, 2,500 horns turned to ashes in Assam

The “world’s largest stockpile” of rhino horns was consigned to flames in jap Assam’s Bokakhat, the headquarters of the Kaziranga Nationwide Park and Tiger Reserve, amid Vedic rituals on Wednesday.

The occasion timed with the World Rhino Day was aimed toward dispelling myths which have pushed the unlawful horn commerce and the poaching of the animal.

Lit remotely by means of drones

Wildlife officers mentioned 2,479 of the two,623 horns saved in 12 district treasuries since 1979 had been burnt in six massive iron pyres positioned at a stadium in Bokakhat, about 240 km east of Guwahati. These had been lit remotely by means of drones.

Among the many destroyed had been 21 pretend horns seized from smugglers and merchants and 15 African rhino horns introduced from the Assam State Zoo in Guwahati.

“We organised this occasion to convey to the world that rhino horns are only a mass of compacted hair they usually don’t have any medicinal worth. We urge folks to not kill these uncommon animals or purchase their horns primarily based on superstitions or myths,” Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma mentioned after initiating the horn-burning programme.

Ten of his Cupboard colleagues, the chief of two tribal councils and senior officers attended the programme.

“Rhino horns are burnt in Africa however not so many at a time. I believe we’ve set a world document,” Dr. Sarma mentioned, including that each one horns recovered from rhinos dying naturally or throughout disasters and accidents would henceforth be burned yearly.

P. Sivakumar, Kaziranga’s Director, mentioned 29 horns implicated in court docket instances, will likely be stored within the treasuries whereas 94 others, together with the heaviest at 3.05 kg, will likely be preserved for exhibition or instructional functions. The State authorities will arrange a pure historical past museum close to the nationwide park to showcase the preserved horns.

The burden of the horns destroyed was 1,305.25 kg whereas the load of these to be preserved is 131.05 kg, officers mentioned.

Earlier than the destruction, consultants had verified the horns utilizing scientific strategies on the treasuries they had been stored in. Every horn was cleaned, weighed, photographed, labelled with a novel barcode, packed and sealed once more after extraction of DNA samples.

Life-size rhino

“The ashes will likely be saved and utilized in a life-size rhino to be put up at Mihimukh, the principle entrance to the Kaziranga Nationwide Park,” Mr. Sivakumar advised The Hindu.

The occasion was preceded by an elaborate Vedic ritual that entailed performing the final rites.

Wednesday’s was the second such mass-burning of animal physique elements in jap India. A stockpile of rhino horns and elephant tusks was burnt in West Bengal’s Chilapatha forest (Alipurduar district) in 2005-06.