Five fake rhino horns found in treasury during verification process in Assam

The Rhino Horn Verification Committee on Friday took stock of the rhino horns stored in the Tezpur treasury while verification in Mangaldoi treasury.

In the Tezpur Treasury, the Committee verified rhino horns from Western Assam(Wildlife) division, Sonitpur (West) and Sonitpur (East) divisions.

Altogether 56 rhino horn of these divisions were scrutinized. Of them were five fake horns seized by the police, recorded and kept inside the box as fake one.

However the committee noticed cut mark in 5 rhino horns and could not find any communication to ascertain the source of the cut marks as portion of the rhino horns seems to have been sliced out for unknown reasons.

Incidentally all these five horns were seized by the police and handed over to the Forest authorities.

The Committee also did not open a box belonging to the Sonitpur(West) division which said to have contained three rhino horns because the box seal was found broken and keys of the locks were missing.

The committee will verify these horns only after authentication of the content of the boxes by the government through legal process.

Later in the evening Committee moved to Mangaldoi treasury and till late it has been verifying content of the horns stored in 17 boxes.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)