29-Jan-10 1:00 PM CST

Fake Rhino Horns: A Saving Grace

THE ILLEGAL trade of rhino horns in Northeast India, especially in the state of Assam is getting murkier with every passing day. Now some unscrupulous elements have gone to the extend of duping customers with fake replicas. When the customers are often in a hurry to grab the prize and fade away, these traders mint some quick bucks passing on the fake replica.

According to investigations, the cloak-and-dagger dusky market of animal parts is flooded with such fake items. And even experts get bemused at the ingenious skill adopted by these traders. Usually these fake rhino horns are crafted out of wood or dry bamboo root and purified with lakh to look like the real ones. What's more these are then smeared with flesh of some common animals like frogs to give the smell. It is believed that rhino horns are identified by its distinctive odour. And these conmen have even come up with this idea of duping their customers in their sense of smell.

The rhino horns are in great demand in South Asian countries and also in the Middle East for supposedly for its medicinal values, a theory never substantiated by science.

This clandestine fake trade was exposed after a replica of rhino horn was recovered at Bokaghat town near the famed Kaziranga National Park known world-over for the one-horned rhino, around 245 km from capital city of Guwahati. Two of the conmen were also apprehended by the police. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. With the recent spurt in demand for rhino horns, criminals in the trade are formulating unique ways to mint money. The state of Assam has already witnessed the killing of five rhinos, two each at the Kaziranga National Park and the Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park, while one was slaughtered just a few days ago in Sonitpur district.

However, there is a silver lining to every dark cloud. With such fake replicas doing the rounds, criminals in the form of the buyers will execute caution while buying and this might in a way to save the poor animals from being butchered by poachers.

News items on this page are from external sources and the International Rhino Foundation cannot be held responsible for the authenticity of their content, nor for the continuing presence of original links.

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