Just a day after the visit by the British royal couple to Assam’s Kaziranga National Park, a World Heritage Site (“Next stop: Kaziranga”, April 13), a rhino is feared to have been killed with an AK-47, which shows that there have to be serious efforts to save our wildlife, a cause said to be close to Prince William’s heart. The West and large parts of Asia are acknowledged to be among the world’s major markets for wildlife products, both legal and illegal. In Asia, there is a demand for ivory and rhino horn from a rapidly expanding wealthy class that views these commodities as luxury goods that enhance social status. In Assam, there is no dearth of environmentalists, student leaders, mediapersons, poets and singers who have protested against rhino poaching but, somehow, nothing seems to be happening.
The sight of a hornless rhino, blood-streaked and writhing in anguish before it dies a painful death, is an unbearable sight. One hopes that the plight of the rhino finds place in the next government’s policies and that there is some result from the royal visit.
Nipam Kumar Saikia,
Sonitpur, Assam
