India's Contraband Wildlife
Rhino Horns
The Moreh trade point in the Himalayas between the Indian state of Manipur and Myanmar is a hotspot for smuggling of items such as deer antlers and rhino horns, used in Asian traditional medicine. Kaziranga, a natural reserve in the neighboring Assam, is home to a third of the world's 2,700 remaining rhinos, whose prized horns attract poachers in large numbers. Poaching was brought under control until 2006, thanks largely to heightened government security measures and a better intelligence network. But with the rhino population dwindling in Nepal and elsewhere in South Asia, poachers are targeting Kaziranga once again.
Rhinos horn is believed to possess aphrodisiac qualities, besides being useful for curing fever and stomach ailments. Like ivory, IT is also in demand in the Middle East for making handles of ornamental daggers. A rhino horn can sell for up to $30,000 per kilogram. Smuggled horns travel from the northeast of India to Kathmandu in Nepal, and on to China, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and the Middle East. All five rhino species in the world are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's red list of endangered species.