No rhinos will be poached in Assam in 2022 for the first time in many years.

 The Indian rhino is now classified as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, which is a better classification than endangered and a worse classification than near threatened.

Updated: january 3, 2023 07:15 IST

Rhinos have been poached because some civilizations value their horn.

According to ANI, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on January 1 that there would be no rhino poaching in the state in 2022. Data from the Special DGP G P Singh revealed on Twitter that Assam saw no rhino poaching incidences last year for the first time since at least 2000.

"Anti-poaching initiatives for rhinos have shown amazing results. In the year 2022, there hasn't been any rhino poaching in Assam. The last poaching occurred on December 28, 2021, in the Golaghat district's Hilakunda, Kohora. The graph would be kept as flat as possible, Singh said.

Indian rhinoceros

The Brahmaputra valley, a portion of North Bengal, and a portion of southern Nepal are the only locations where the Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) may be found. It possesses a strong, grey-brown hide with folds that gives the animal its distinctive armor-plated appearance, a single black horn that may reach a height of 60 cm, and these features together.

The Indian rhino is now classified as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, which is a better classification than endangered and a worse classification than near threatened. The greater one-horned rhino's resurgence is one of Asia's top conservation success stories, according to the WWF.

The WWF estimates that there are now 3,700 wild Indian rhinos. According to a census taken in March 2022, the Kaziranga National Park (KNP) in Assam alone is home to 2,613 different creatures. In the Orang, Pobitora, and Manas parks, there are more than 250 more rhinos.

Rhino poaching

Rhinos have been poached because some civilizations value their horn. In Vietnam, a rhino horn is regarded as a status symbol. According to a 2021 press release from the Assam Forest Department, "ground rhino horn is used in traditional Chinese medicine to cure a range of ailments, from cancer to hangovers, and also as an aphrodisiac." According to the statement, rhino poaching pressure "is constantly persistent due to demand in these nations, against which one cannot let the guard down."

A Special Rhino Protection Force was established by the Assam government in 2019 to monitor rhino poaching and associated activities at Kaziranga National Park (KNP). Nearly 2,500 rhino horns were publicly burned at Bokakhat in the KNP on September 22, World Rhino Day, 2021, to "bust misconceptions about rhino horns" and to "send a loud and clear message to the poachers and smugglers that such goods have no value."