Sending a Message on World Rhino Day: Assam Burns 2,467 Rhino Horns Busting Myth

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DY365
Published: September 22,2021 12:31 PM
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As many as six giant gas furnaces, each with three tiers were in place to burn the horns which have been preserved for years.

September 22, 2021: Assam has burnt 2,479 rhino horns on World Rhino Day today to send a strong message and bust the myth that rhino horns are storehouses of medicinal properties. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma was present at the Busting Myth About Rhino Horns, and Public Destruction of Largest Stockpile of Horns of Greater One-Horned Rhinos held at the sporting field of Bokakhat, Assam.





As many as six giant gas furnaces, each with three tiers were in place to burn the horns which have been preserved for years.



”Rhino horns from Barpeta, Morigan, Barpeta, Mangaldoi, Tezpur Nagaon, BTR, Golaghat, and Kohora have been deposited in the Bokakhat treasury,” M K Yadava, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest and HoF, Assam Forest Department had said earlier.





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On September 16, the state cabinet unanimously decided to publicly burn 2,467 pieces of rhino horns out of 2,623 rhino horns stock piled in state treasuries. As many as 94 rhino stockpiled rhino horns will be preserved as archive properties for academic purposes while 50 of them would be reserved for court cases.



A statement issued by Assam Environment Minister Parimal Suklabaidya on Tuesday stated, “This is the largest public destruction of the stockpile of horns of the Greater One-Horned rhino and is aimed to propagate and reinforce the fact that rhino’s horns do not have any medicinal value.”