Horn not ok please

Updated on: 05 October,2009 07:40 AM IST |
Khalid A-H Ansari | [email protected]

Poaching rhinos for their valuable horns is reaching alarming proportions in South Africa

Horn not ok please

Poaching rhinos for their valuable horns is reaching alarming proportions in South Africa

One reason for the recent bloody upsurge in South Africa is the belief in many Asian countries that rhino horn is an aphrodisiac and, also, efficacious in the treatment of cancer.

It is believed more than 100 rhinos have been slain thus far this year as against just 13 in 2007.

An initiative currently under way in this country seeks to raise funds for a new Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) to protect rhinos from organised poaching gangs.

According to Yolan Friedmann, chief executive of the EWT: "Poaching has become high-tech. It's not just a man with an AK-47 wading through the bush. These guys are using helicopters and bows and arrows."

The EWT's initiative Strengthening the Security of the Rhino in SA, to be officially launched at the end of this year, hopes to outsmart poaching by focusing on law enforcement, tracking the trade in rhino horns, as well as ensuring the security of the rhino population on national and provincial reserves and private land.

A white rhino, hunted last year, was reportedly sold for a record 1 million rands (approx Rs 62 lakh).

In a recent report, animal rights lobby group Animal Rights Africa noted that "the colossal growth of rhino killings, both legal and illegal, and the concomitant inefficient anti-poaching ability and poor record keeping means that rhinos are facing suffering, exploitation and death, which could threaten the survival of the entire species."

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