Our open letter to the Assam forest department regarding trimming rhino horns.. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Date : March 26, 2014 To : The Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Assam Forest Department Basistha, Guwahati 29 From : Sandeep Mishra President & CEO, Conservation Consortium B 60, Harshnagar Society D Cabin, Sabarmati Ahmedabad, 380019 Subject: Opinion on proposed trimming of rhino horns Reference: Press advertisement JANASANYOG/10539/13 Dear Sir, Greetings from Conservation Consortium! I am writing to you to present our organizational ‘opinion on proposed trimming of rhino horns’ before you. The members of our organization did have a meeting on March 22, 2014 and had a detailed discussion on the subjected issue, to assess the pros and cons of the proposed option to protect our rhinos. The members unanimously came to the conclusion that the trimming of rhino horns must not be done at any cost. Besides, the members preferred to bring to your notice a highly important thing that you may have ignored regarding this particular official notice. Rhinos are our national property. It is absolutely unacceptable that you have requested ‘citizens of Assam only’ to submit their opinion as if the rest of the country has nothing to do with the rhinos and their poaching or trading of their body parts. We as an organization strongly condemns this approach of Assam forest department and request you to take immediate and appropriate measures to correct this mistake. However, I would like to assure you on behalf of our organization that: 1. We fully understand rhino-poaching in Assam has been increasing and is a highly sensitive issue. 2. We also understand that the forest department has been struggling with issues like staff shortage, anti-poaching equipments, arms/ammunitions, training, compensation motivation etc. 3. Conservation Consortium appreciates the efforts made by the Assam forest department in dealing with rhino poaching and wildlife trade problem within its limited resources and strength. Following are the primary reasons to justify why we believe that trimming of rhino horns must not be done: 1. The main use of a rhinoceros horn is posturing. One male rhinoceros reigns over a clearly defined territory and does not permit any dominant males to enter his area. Hoping to avoid a fight, a rhinoceros lowers its horn to the ground or locks horns with the enemy. A rhinoceros will also lower its head and charge to scare encroaching animals, including other rhinoceroses. 2. The horn is also used as an indicator of a strong mate, so larger horns are more desirable. 3. If intimidation does not forestall a fight, rhinoceros use their horns to defend themselves. The horns are sharp enough to gore their thick skin because the rhinoceros rubs it on rough surfaces, which inadvertently removes the soft outer layer. Rhinoceroses are also quick runners, so charging is especially damaging. 4. The sharp horn is useful for digging in the dry, compact soils rhinoceros often frequent. If there are not enough grasses available for the white rhinoceros, they use their horn to dig for roots or unearth small plants with edible roots. If no roots are around, they dig to gain access to shorter grasses. When desperate for water, the rhinoceros digs in dry riverbeds to find an underground supply. 5. Female rhinoceroses use their horns to steer their young and guide them until they are capable of navigating on their own. Male rhinoceros sometimes use their horns to move their excrement into piles that demarcate the border of their territory. 6. The Honolulu Zoo reports that rhinoceroses use their horns and front feet to test the thickness of a mud hole before entering to cool down. If the mud is too thick, they will not risk becoming stuck. 7. Rhinos are believed to have evolved their horns in 65 million years of natural evolution processes. There are definite benefits of horns to the rhinos for further reasons that we are yet not aware of. 8. The horn characterizes a rhino. When we think of rhinos, the first thing that comes to our mind is the horn. We still do not know much about the psychological role that the horns might have been playing for the rhinos. 9. Earlier experiments of trimming rhino horns to protect rhinos in Africa have not been very successful too for example, in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe during the early 1990s, the majority of dehorned rhinos were killed just 12-18 months after being dehorned. In Zimbabwe’s Save Valley Conservancy, six newly dehorned rhinos were poached during January-August 2011 (one rhino was killed within 24 hours and another within five days of being dehorned). 10. Poachers continue to target hornless rhinos for the stub of horn that is left after removal. If the horn is cut too close to the germinal layer, this could damage the horn base and lead to deformed horn re-growth. Current dehorning is estimated to remove 90% and 93% of horn mass in male and female rhinos respectively. So during any dehorning exercise a stub of horn will remain: although poaching is made less profitable, the sad reality is that poachers will still kill for a horn stub due to its high value. 11. Poachers may also kill dehorned rhinos out of vengeance. In Hwange NP, it was thought that poachers killed dehorned rhinos, to avoid tracking them again. Furthermore, if there is thick bush or hilly terrain poachers may not see if the rhino has an intact horn prior to shooting. 12. Horns grow back over time, with recent studies claiming that the re-growth of dehorned rhino horn appears faster than growth in non-dehorned rhinos. With the current severe poaching threat, experts recommend that rhinos should ideally be dehorned every 12-24 months in order to be an effective deterrent. We hope that the mentioned facts are sufficient enough to come to the conclusion that trimming of rhino horns must not be considered as an option to deal with the issue of rhino poaching in Assam. Rather the department should consider the following steps to fight poachers in the affected regions: 1. Raise a national level concern meeting to attract people’s attention to this serious issue. 2. Engage into better coordination and joint monitoring task forces involving police and forest departments across bordering states of Assam. 3. Take help of national intelligence and defence agencies to work out better strategies on anti poaching measures. 4. Create local intelligence networks involving local villagers and understand poachers’ movements and planned activities. 5. Hold departmental inquiry into the rhino poaching incidents to investigate staff involvement in poaching/trading of rhinos. 6. Allow NGOs/citizen bodies to support/assist in poaching cases by taking them into confidence. 7. Involve NGOs and activists to raise the rhino-poaching alarm at national and international level and create pressure on international bodies to stop horn/wildlife trading. 8. Fill up the vacancies for all the ranks in the department immediately. 9. Train the frontline staff in advance surveillance and intelligence gathering. 10. Involve common people both at a state as well as national level to raise further awareness about rhinos. 11. Make rhinos the symbol of Assam not on paper but in practice. We as an organization would like to associate with the Assam forest department and assist in all possible ways to save our precious rhinos. Do let us know, how we can get associated. Regards -------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 05:26:28 +0000
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