World Rhino Day: Assam burns rhino horns to bust myth on medicinal value

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Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said it was necessary not to sell the rhino horns and add value to the illegal poaching industry.

Nearly 2,500 rhino horns, which officials say was the world’s largest such stockpile, were burnt and destroyed in Assam’s Bokakhat on Wednesday to mark World Rhino Day and discourage the myths that have propelled poaching of the endangered pachyderms.

About 2,479 horns weighing around 1300kg, which had been seized from poachers and illegal traders or recovered from dead rhinos in the state’s national parks and wildlife sanctuaries since 1979, were burnt in six large pyres at a stadium in Bokakhat, 240 km east of Guwahati.

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, accompanied by several cabinet colleagues, lit the pyres remotely through drones.

“Through this event, we want to convey to the world that...there is no medicinal value to them (rhino horns). We want to urge people not to kill these rare animals or buy their horns based on superstitions or myths. We should allow rhinos to live and grow naturally,” Sarma said.Hindustan