Indian officials burn rhino horns to stop illegal trade

Indian officials have burned about 2,500 old rhino horns to spread awareness of the need to protect the rare animal on World Rhino Day

GAUHATI, India -- Indian officials burned about 2,500 old rhino horns on Wednesday to spread awareness of the need to protect the rare animal on World Rhino Day.

Dozens of Hindu priests performed rituals and chanted prayers as the top Assam state elected official, Himanta Biswa Sarma, lit the fire on a large platform in a sports stadium near the famed Kaziranga National Park.

The horns, which had been stored for years, were from rhinos that died of natural causes at Kazaringa and other smaller habitats across Assam state and those confiscated from poachers.

Kaziranga is home to nearly 2,500 one-horned rhinos and is the world’s largest habitat for the rare animal. Armed forest guards protect the rhinos, but poachers still manage to kill some of them.