'Nations should join hands to tackle rhino poaching'

GUWAHATI: Conservationists have said that the Centre and the state should explore how it can explore the benefits of collaborating with other countries that have Asian countries that have rhino habitats. Such collaborations, they said, would help in intelligence sharing to curb the menace of poaching in the state.

One of the resolutions adopted at the Second Asian Rhino Range Countries Meeting in New Delhi recently was "to collaborate to strengthen protection regimes, strategic information gathering, and real time sharing of actionable information on rhino crime and its horn trade to secure the rhino population within and between range countries."

"Countries should explore how they can collaborate to tackle rhino poaching. Devising a mechanism for real-time information sharing will go a long way in curbing the crime," chair of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Asian Rhino Specialist Group, Bibhab Talukdar, said. He added that Assam should take the lead in forming these collaborations because the state has also played a leading role in rhino conservation.