Formerly distributed across the Gangetic plains, one-horned rhinos, which are native to South Asia are restricted today to tracts in the Indo-Nepal terai, north Bengal and Assam. Their numbers dwindled dangerously over the past few centuries, reportedly falling to a dozen a century ago. Conservation efforts have raised the numbers of the one-horned rhino to 3,500 today, with Kaziranga playing home to two-thirds of these. Still, they remain an endangered species. Poaching and loss of habitat are the main threats to the rhino’s survival.

A rhino’s horn is meant to help the animal defend itself. Unfortunately, the horn has made this mighty beast vulnerable. Rhino horn is valued in East and Southeast Asia as an ingredient in Chinese medicine. This has resulted in poaching and an illegal international trade in rhino horns. Some, including the Assam government, are of the view that dehorning the rhino will save the animal from poachers. But this is not the solution. Dehorning amounts to accepting defeat, even surrendering to poachers. It is this single horn that sets apart the Indian rhino from other rhino species. How can we deny it this defining feature?