World Rhino day

In news- World Rhino Day is celebrated on September 22 every year

This year’s theme: ‘Keep the Five Alive’.

History of World Rhino Day-

The day was first announced by WWF-South Africa in 2010.
Since 2011 the World Rhino Day has grown into an international success, encompassing both African and Asian rhino species.
It was popularized by two dedicated women, identified as Rhishja Cota and Lisa Jane Campbell.
The day aims to raise awareness about the African and Asian species of rhinos and encourage people to take steps for their conservation.
It is a day of awareness for all five species of rhinoceroses – black and white (in Africa), and greater one-horned, Sumatran and Javan (in Asia).

Burning of Rhino horns-

The “world’s largest stockpile” of rhino horns was consigned to flames in eastern Assam’s Bokakhat, the headquarters of the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve, amid Vedic rituals.
The event timed with the World Rhino Day was aimed at dispelling myths that have driven the illegal horn trade and the poaching of the animal.
This event seeks to convey to the world that rhino horns are just a mass of compacted hair and they have no medicinal value.
It was the second such mass-burning of animal body parts in eastern India.
A stockpile of rhino horns and elephant tusks was burnt in West Bengal’s Chilapatha forest (Alipurduar district) in 2005-06.

About Rhinos-

Three species of Rhino – Black, Javan, and Sumatran are critically endangered.
Recently Sumatran rhinoceros has become extinct in Malaysia, after the death of the last rhino in the country.
It is the smallest of all rhino species.
Now only about 80 of them are left in Sumatra and Borneo in Indonesia.
A small population of Javan rhinos is found in only one national park on the northern tip of the Indonesian island of Java.
In Africa, Southern white rhinos, once thought to be extinct, now thrive in protected sanctuaries and are classified as near threatened.
They are also known as the “Square-lipped rhino” (‘mowing-machines).
But the western black rhino and northern white rhinos have recently become extinct in the wild.
Black rhinos are the smaller of the two African species.
The greater one-horned rhino, sometimes known as the Indian rhino, is increasing in number in India as a result of conservation initiatives.
There are currently around 3,500 of these rhinos.