To mark World Rhino Day 2021, preparations are almost complete for a unique cremation ceremony where 2,479 rhino horns will be burnt at the sports ground in Bokakhat, Assam on Wednesday. There are at least six huge gas furnaces, each with three levels, that have been preserved over the years to burn these horns.
Rhino horns of Barpeta, Morrigan, Barpeta, Mangaldoi, Tezpur Nagaon, BTR, Golaghat and Kohora have been deposited in Bokakhat treasury. Tomorrow at 6 am we will take out the horns and from 6.30 am you will set them aside in stock to burn and keep. The horn will be scanned and we have arranged a webcast so that the world can be a part of it,” said MK Yadav, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and HOF, Assam Forest Department.
On 16 September, the state cabinet unanimously decided to publicly burn 2,467 rhino horns out of 2,623 rhino horn stocks kept in state treasuries. The rhino horns of 94 rhinos stocked for educational purposes will be protected as collection assets, while 50 of them will be reserved for court cases. The exercise will be executed in accordance with the relevant section of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and in compliance with the order of the Gauhati High Court in 2010, which directed the Assam Forest Department to hold a public hearing on the proposed burning of the rhinoceros. Horns.
The decision of rhino horn burning genesis in 2009 when the then government decided to send stored rhino horns to various museums around the world and present the rest as souvenirs to foreign dignitaries. At that time there was a stock of about 1600 rhino horns in the state treasuries. We opposed this move as these horns should not be used as animal trophies and it is against international protocol. Horns are the defense mechanism of animals and once the animal is no more there is no point in preserving the horns,” said Mubeena Akhtar, a member of the recent verification committee in Guwahati and Golaghat.
Stock polling also sends a wrong message to the existing secret Southeast Asian market which is related to these horns and the government finally decided to verify the horns and in 2012 it was finalized that the horns were sold in Diphu in Karbi Anglong district. will be thrown into the fire. she added.
He further said that a PIL was filed in the Gauhati High Court challenging the authenticity of the horn and the government had constituted a central, technical and regional committee to re-verify the stock of rhino horns.
This initiative will send a direct message to those involved in the illegal trade of rhino horn and those still affected by the belief that rhino horn has amazing powers. A statement issued by Assam Environment Minister Parimal Shuklabaidya on Tuesday said, “This is the largest public destruction of the horn stock of the Greater One-horned rhinoceros and is aimed at publicizing and reinforcing the fact that rhino horns have has no medicinal value.”
“We have ensured that the ashes of the horns left after burning are also properly disposed of,” he said. As you know, some of the popular medicinal practices in China are believed to be the use of ash and thus smuggling. The ash will be poured into the concrete and we have decided to fabricate a life size rhinoceros of ash concrete cast. It will take time but the casting will start from tomorrow. The rhinoceros will be kept in the museum which is planned to come here,” Yadav said.
These horns were recovered from poachers or collected from dead rhinos in the state’s national parks, and kept in the custody of forest departments or treasuries in various districts. There is a standing order of the Supreme Court to burn the body parts of recovered wild animals like ivory and rhino horn. While Assam disposed of the horns recovered before 1979, the horns collected since then have reportedly been preserved because of the emotional attachment of the local people.
“Forest officials and guards have an emotional attachment to horns because they collected them from poachers or dead animals. Some people have opposed the burning of horns. I sympathize with the emotional attachment but I think we need to destroy them because accumulating them year after year will just make a huge pile of a non-functional item,” said Mubeena Akhtar.
In India, one-horned rhinos were declared endangered in 1975, but were listed as ‘vulnerable’ in the 2008 Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. According to government figures, 22 one-horned rhinos have been killed by poachers since 2017 and 644 poachers have been arrested so far. The government has set up 10 fast-track sessions courts for speedy trial of wildlife-related offences.
“I cannot fathom the fact that rhino horns will be burnt. You cannot hide the fact that animals are being hunted by burning horns in Assam. Instead the horns should have been preserved in museums so that people could see them and understand the animal’s vulnerability and empathize with them. They can consider ways and means to protect them,” Akhil Gogoi MLA Sivasagar Assam said.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma along with State Forest Minister Parimal Shuklabaidya and several cabinet ministers will be part of the historic event to dispel all myths about the removal of rhino horn and its hunting and the ceremony will also have a prayer. Service.
“I believe that it is necessary to burn rhinoceros to protect the pride of Assam. The rhinoceros is our state animal and I am campaigning for World Rhino Day. Burning could not have had a better day than this,” said Suhan Mallick, Friend of Rhino and Green Hero Assam.
The 2018 census produced an estimated 2,650 rhinos in Assam, and if seen at the annual rate of increase in the animal population, there should be around 3,000 individuals today.
Read also: World Rhino Day 2021: History, Significance and Interesting Facts
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