Myanmar a potential threat to Asian rhinos: Global report

Hit by political instability, armed conflict and sanctions since the military coup in 2021, Myanmar could grow as a potential threat to Asian rhinos, including the greater one-horned rhinos found in India and Nepal, says a report on rhino horns trafficking across the globe, released by Wildlife Justice Commission, based in the Netherlands.

The report titled Rhino Horns Trafficking as a form of Transnational Organised Crime (2012-2021) said although there is a declining trend of seizure of Asian rhino horns, the smuggling route from India into Myanmar and then onwards into Southeast Asia and China appears to be increasing in relevance.

"Rhino horns and products have been observed for sale in the Golden Triangle region of eastern Myanmar at notorious wildlife markets in Mong La (bordering China) and Tachileik (bordering Thailand). The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau in India is reportedly investigating the smuggling of rhino horn taking place in Manipur state (bordering Myanmar), in a network that extends from India to Myanmar and onwards into Southeast Asia and China," said the report, released recently.

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The report said Myanmar’s geographic position nestled between India and China, and its access into Southeast Asia via borders with Thailand and Lao PDR, make it a convenient transit point along the smuggling route. Along with other factors that provide ideal conditions for criminal activity to flourish, including limited government control in the country’s autonomous border territories, political instability, armed conflict, and sanctions since the 2021 military coup, there is concern that Myanmar could grow as a potential threat to Asian rhinos, it said.

The population of one-horned rhinos found only in India and Nepal has crossed the 4,000-mark recently due to conservation measures and efforts to check poaching. Kaziranga National Park in Assam has a maximum of 2,613 greater one-horned rhinos (2022 Census).

"Analysis of the seizure data showed a spike in the number of incidents and weight of Asian rhino horns confiscated from illegal trade during the 2014-2015 period, which corresponds with the sharp increase in the overall number and weight of all rhino horn seizures seen at this time. Asian rhino poaching rates have also shown a consistent declining trend over the decade. The low seizure weights indicate that Asian rhino horns are seized in very small quantities, often as single horns, as opposed to African rhino horns which are seized in increasingly larger shipments. This could reflect the fact that their population numbers are lower than African rhinos, as well as the different modus operandi employed for trafficking this horn type, which can be moved overland from the primary source locations in India and Nepal to the destination markets in East Asia," said the report.

It further said that very few international smuggling routes were described in the seizures, as the majority took place in the country where the rhino was poached, namely India or Nepal, although the data also included six seizures of Sumatran rhino horns that took place in Indonesia in 2016 and 2018. "Only eight Asian rhino horn seizures involved cross-border smuggling, but from this scarce data it is possible to infer that the majority of Asian rhino horns move from India to Nepal, and perhaps also to Bhutan, for overland smuggling into China "