Rhino Horn Trade: A Very Pointed Bubble

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Can you imagine a horn having more value than gold in the international black market? Well, I was as shook as you are when I found out!
The Rhino horn trade is far more complex than it seems to be. Rhinoceros  poaching was banned in India in 1910. Yet Rhino poaching trends have been high and not so surprisingly the horn is the most sought after body part of Rhinos. Despite it being a punishable offence, these poachers who are generally skillful sharpshooters take the risk as the yields are beyond believable!

A kilo of Rhino horn is pegged at around $100,000 in the international market with an average horn being around 1-3 kg. The price is perhaps more than that of Gold or Cocaine. Why? Let’s look at the demand.
The ever increasing demand of Rhino horns has seen upto 30% rise in the past 13 years. This insane demand comes from Vietnam, and China, as it’s believed that Rhino horns have Cancer curing properties. This belief was strengthened by a rumour that swept Vietnam in mid 2000’s that imbibing Rhino horn powder had cured a Vietnamese politician’s cancer. Some blame the rising number of wealthy people in Vietnam to be another reason for this newly found in interest. The tally of multimillionaires has risen by 150% in the last 5 years. Rhino horn powder is used as a Cocaine like party drug. Wealthy Vietnamese and Asian expatriate business elites in Vietnam also apparently use rhino horn as an aphrodisiac and as a cure for impotence. The convention on International Trade On Endangered Species notes that this rising wealth is “inflating a bubble of demand of Rhino horn”.

According to report submitted by conservative to Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) rhino horns were illegally transported to Vietnam through Nepal, but with stricter laws against poaching and Rhino horn smuggling in Nepal the transit route has now shifted to Myanmar. India which is a home to 3000 one horned Rhinos has not been able to successfully control illegal smuggling of Rhino horn. “The Rhino horn trade could potentially invite threats to national security as some armed militant groups in North East India have reportedly been found to be involved in the rhino horn trade in exchange of arms.” Said Bibhab Talukdar, Chair of the IUCN SSC Asian Rhino Specialist Group. The IUCN Asian Rhino Specialist Group (AsRSG) is currently negotiating the preparation of a national rhino conservation strategy, involving India’s ministry of environment, forests and climate change, as well as Assam, Bengal and UP governments.

With alarmingly high trends of rhino poaching in India there is an urgent need of stringent laws to prevent poaching as well as Rhino horn smuggling. The routes of this illegal trade network need to be blocked or checked. These steps can be effective only if the countries involved join hands and work collectively towards wiping out the illegal horn trade for it leads to serious environmental imbalance with reducing number of Rhinos and leads to negative economic implications in the way of drain of foreign exchange.

Written by:
Deeksha Sharma
Year I

References:
https://goo.gl/w2oeQz
https://goo.gl/AjVxEYv
https://goo.gl/jQ7Vfw

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