Despite ongoing efforts to protect Kaziranga’s precious wildlife, poachers have managed to kill a rhino and a tiger inside the park.

Kaziranga park officials were dismayed to discover the carcass of a female rhino with her horn chopped out. She was found in the park’s Bagori range, near the western part of the Dimoli forest camp.

Less than 24 hours earlier, a female tiger’s carcass was found in the Kohora range, near the Mikirjam forest camp.

According to the Press Trust of India, this is the eleventh rhino and an additional report from the Times of India states the cat was the twelfth tiger killed in the park this year.

Last month, a rhino, tiger, and elephant were killed inside the park within a span of just a few days. Fortunately, three rhino poachers were later arrested.

In an attempt to stop the increase in wildlife killings, UNESCO has recently requested stronger anti-poaching measures for Kaziranga National Park. The park houses two-thirds of the world’s greater one-horned rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis) population.

What’s behind these killings?

Wildlife experts admit that China’s newly affluent are having a disastrous effect on the world’s wildlife populations. In fact, the connection between Chinese rising incomes and increased wildlife destruction is even recognized outside of environmental circles.

From a recent Financial Times article Shopping Habits of China’s ‘Suddenly Wealthy’:

… traditional Chinese tastes, combined with the explosion in wealth during the past decade, have created a rapacious and unsustainable call for the body parts of endangered species. The manufacture of ­traditional delicacies, ornaments and medicinal ingredients has helped to cut swathes through populations of sharks, elephants, seahorses and other species across the world – and that demand is only expected to increase.

Having already driven many species – such as rhino and tiger – to near extinction in the wild, the Chinese demand for the body parts of these animals continues without concern. The resurgence of elephant poaching in Kenya has even been linked to China’s insatiable appetite for ivory.

The bottom line

Sadly, China, while attempting to pass itself off as a “modern” nation, is steeped in barbaric “tradition” – and inhumane notions – when it comes to conservation of endangered species.

Not every Chinese citizen is involved, of course; however, the enormous number of Chinese who demand these ridiculous goods is enough to take a measurable toll on fragile populations of endangered species.

The bottom line is that this methodical, mindless consumption of the world’s wildlife is going to leave nothing for future generations – nothing but a few zoo specimens.

Hiding behind “political correctness” and “cultural sensitivity” is driving endangered species closer to extinction. It’s time to stop wasting time with this nonsense and hold China accountable for the environmental crimes of its nouveau riche consumers.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

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Updated: Rhino, Leopard Killed by Poachers in Kaziranga National Park by Rhishja Larson, originally published October 7, 2009 on EcoWorldly.

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