GOLAGHAT: A rhino horn trading racket has been busted by the forest department in Assam.
The Assam forest department has apprehended three rhino smugglers in Golaghat district.
According to reports, the three arrested persons smuggled rhino horns from near the Kaziranga National Park in Assam.
The three arrested individuals have been identified as Imam Ali of Baghmari in Biswanath district, Baharul Islam of Kuthuri in Golaghat district and Mohan Teron of Rongbong village in Karbi Anglong district of Assam.
On Monday, Imam Ali was apprehended.
Following his interrogation, two more rhino horns smugglers were also arrested.
Poaching of rhinos for their horns has been a major concern for officials in Assam.
Kaziranga National Park in Assam, with over 2600 rhinos is the world’s largest habitat of one-horned rhinoceros.
Two-thirds of the world’s one-horned rhinoceroses are confined to the Kaziranga National Park at Golaghat district of Assam.
Rhino horns are being sold in international market for big sums of money.
Rhinoceros horns are used in traditional medicines in parts of Asia, and for dagger handles in Yemen and Oman.
In Europe, it was historically believed that rhino horns could purify water and could detect poisoned liquids, and likely as an aphrodisiac and an antidote to poison.
It is a common misconception that rhinoceros horn in powdered form is used as an aphrodisiac or a cure for cancer in traditional Chinese medicine.
International trade in rhinoceros horn has been declared illegal by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) since 1977.