INDIA - Kaziranga National Park – Poachers pose a renewed threat to rare and endangered species of rhinoceros when they killed four of them in a reserve in northeast India recently.
Four one- horned rhinos were killed at the Kaziranga National Park, which has the world's largest concentration of this specie with more than 1,800 of the protected animals living amid swamps, forests and tall thickets of elephant grass.
Bibhab Talukdar, a conservationist working in the park, on the banks of the Brahmaputra River in Assam said "The future of rhinos is not safe in Kaziranga,"
This rare specie of rhinos, scientific order ‘Unicornis’ is said to be found only in eastern India and neighboring Nepal in their natural habitat.
There are less than 3,000 individuals left in the world, reported the Global Conservation Group WWF
The horn of this specie of rhinoceros is made of hair-like keratin fibers and therefore can fetch up to $10,000 per kilogram on the international market. They also have great demand in China and Southeast Asian countries for traditional medicines, because it is believed the horns have aphrodisiac (exciting sexual desire )qualities, a strong reason for the renewed risk posed to this rare Indian rhino.