RHINOS
- ENVIRONMENT
News: Curious collage shows rhino horns are shrinking due to the impact of hunting
What's
in the news?
● The horns of rhinoceroses may have become smaller over time due to the impact of hunting, according to a recent study which used an interesting research approach—analysing artwork and photographs of the animal spanning more than five centuries.
Key
takeaways:
●
Rhinos have long been hunted for their
horns, which are highly valued in some cultures.
●
The five
surviving rhino species are still threatened by habitat loss and hunting.
● The study found that the rate of decline in horn length was highest in the critically-endangered Sumatran rhino and lowest in the white rhino of Africa, which is the most commonly found species both in the wild and in captivity.
Greater
one-horned Rhinos:
● The greater one-horned rhino (or “Indian rhino”) is the largest of the rhino species.
Physical
Appearance:
●
Indian Rhinos are brownish-grey in colour
and are hairless.
●
They have knobby skin that appears to be
armour-plated. A single horn sits on top of their snout, and their upper lip is
semi-prehensile.
● The greater one-horned rhino is identified by a single black horn about 8-25 inches long and a grey-brown hide with skin folds, which gives it an armour-plated appearance.
Habitat:
●
It is confined to the tall grasslands and forests in the foothills of the Himalayas.
● The Great one-horned rhino is commonly found in Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan and in Assam, India
Conservation Status: Greater One-Horned Rhinos (Rhinoceros unicornis) - Vulnerable.
Conservation
efforts:
●
The Ministry of Environment and Forests
(MoEF) has launched a National
Conservation Strategy for Indian One-Horned Rhino and the conservation
initiatives for Rhino has also enriched the grassland management which helps in
reducing the negative impacts of climate change through carbon sequestration.
●
New
Delhi Declaration on Asian Rhinos 2019: Signed by India, Bhutan,
Nepal, Indonesia and Malaysia to conserve and protect the rhinos.
●
Project to create DNA profiles of all rhinos by the Ministry of Environment
Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).
●
Indian
Rhino Vision 2020: It is a unique programme where the
government partnered international, national and local organisations for the
conservation of the rhinos. Under it, Manas has received a total of 22 rhinos
from other protected areas.
● The Indian and Nepalese governments have taken major steps toward Indian Rhinoceros conservation with the help of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
Go
back to basics:
Five
Rhino species:
●
White Rhinos - Africa
●
Black Rhinos - Africa
●
Greater one-horned Rhinos - India
●
Javan Rhinos - Asia
● Sumatran Rhinos - Asia.
Status
on the IUCN Red List:
●
Black Rhino - Critically endangered. The
African species is the smaller of the two.
●
White Rhino - Near Threatened. Researchers
used In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) to generate an embryo of a northern White
Rhino.
●
One-Horned Rhino - Vulnerable.
●
Javan - Critically Endangered.
●
Sumatran Rhino - Critically Endangered. In
Malaysia, it has become extinct.
In India, only the Great One-Horned Rhino may be
found.