Assam government to burn its stock of rhino horns

GUWAHATI: The Assam government is going to burn its stock of rhino horns soon barring those linked to court cases or required for scientific purposes.

There are 2500 rhino horns stored in different treasuries of the state said a member of the Specialist Committee formed by Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest and Chief Wildlife Warden MK Yadav.

The government in 2010 destroyed a total of 1600 rhino horns through a notification. But after Dilip Nath, an environmentalist associated with Aranya Suraksha Sammittee raised suspicion about the actual number of real rhino horns that was destroyed. After that in 2016, a special committee was formed to carry out the counting of the rhino horns.

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The state conducts the counting in every four years. In 2016, a total of 2,020 horns were found in 12 treasuries of the state.

This year the counting started on August 18 in Morigaon Treasury where

39 rhino horns were found in the Barpeta treasury. So far 261 rhino horns have been verified so far in the state.

With an estimated Rhinoceros population of 2,640, Assam has the largest number of Indian one-horn rhinos in the world.

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