Multiple cheetah deaths in Kuno raise questions about habitat limits, prey scarcity, and management. A data-driven look at the challenges facing India’s cheetah project T wo back-to-back cheetah deaths—one from a suspected collision inside the forest and another caused by a speeding vehicle—have once again pushed the spotlight onto the ambitious yet troubled cheetah introduction project in Kuno National Park . While officials have issued preliminary statements, the absence of publicly released post-mortem and investigation reports related to the past such cases has deepened concerns about transparency at a time when clarity is essential. The recent incidents highlight the ecological and management challenges that continue to shape the project’s uncertain trajectory. Each Loss Is Significant Setback On December 5, Friday, one of Veera’s cubs recently released into the open forest, died after reportedly separating from its mother. Just two days later, on December 7, another young cheetah...
Amidst chanting of rhymes and vedic rituals, the “world’s largest stockpile” of rhino horns was burnt to ashes in Assam. The ceremony was held in a stadium of Bokakhat, the headquarters of the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve, a world heritge site, on the occasion of the World Rhino Day on September 22. It was aimed at dispelling myths leading to an illegal horn trade and the poaching of the majestic animal. But the question raised by the environmentalists is , “ Will it check the rhino poaching”?
"A World Record"
A large number of people witnessed the “ world record” made at the Bokakhat stadium when 2,479 horns stored in 12 district treasuries since 1979 were burnt in six large iron furnaces especially designed for the purpose. These were lit remotely through drones . The weight of the horns destroyed was 1,305.25 kg. Before the horns were consigned to flames, experts had verified the horns using "scientific methods" at the treasuries they were kept in.
Also read: Big Step Towards Conservation of Kaziranga Rhino
Each horn was cleaned, weighed, photographed, labelled with a unique barcode, packed and sealed again after extraction of DNA samples, officials said. Among those burnt include 21 fake horns seized from smugglers and traders and 15 African rhino horns brought from the Assam state zoo in Guwahati. Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said “the event was organized to convey to the world that rhino horns are just a mass of compacted hair and they have no medicinal value. We urge people not to kill these rare animals or buy their horns based on superstitions or myths”. He said that “Rhino horns are burnt in Africa but not so many at a time. I think we have set a world record”. The state government has also preserved the heaviest of the horns weighing 3.05 kg for exhibition or educational purposes. Assam will also set up a natural history museum near the national park to showcase the preserved horns. In all 123 horns including 29 as evidence for court cases 94 others will be preserved . After burning the stockpile . Its ashes are being stored to make a life-size rhino to be put up at Mihimukh, the main entrance to the Kaziranga national park
From 75 to 2700, Rhino's Success Story in India
Rhino horns fetch an estimated $ 65,000 per kg and are essentially a mass of compacted hair, made up of Keratin, which also makes up our hair and fingernails. It is used in traditional Chinese medicine and many other far east countries with a myth that it cures a variety of ‘ailments’ . Like tiger body parts, it is also used as an aphrodisiac.
The horn is powdered and dissolved in boiling water for consumption, experts said. Assam is home to the largest population of greater one-horned rhinos in India . Of 2657 rhinos, Kaziranga national park counted 2413 , Manas national Park has 43, Orang National Park has 101, and Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary has 100 rhinos.From a mere population of 75 in 1905 to 2700 by 2012, the rhino conservation effort of India has seen tremendous success over the years. A total of 84 rhino deaths were reported due to poaching in Assam since 2008 while West Bengal witnessed 17 rhino deaths.
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