 Reference Base  Smuggling routes for West Bengal's rhino horn and recent ... |
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Martin, E.B., 1996. Smuggling routes for West Bengal's rhino horn and recent successes in curbing poaching. Pachyderm 21: 28-34, figs. 1-6
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| Location: |
World |
| Subject: |
Trade |
| Species: |
All Rhino Species |
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1990s - Horns from India. So through which route has most of West Bengal's rhino horn been leaving India in recent years? From confidential sources in West Bengal, Assam and Bhutan, it appears that traders in Bhutan from at least the mid-1980s to the present have been buying the majority of West Bengal's horns. Usually the horns are taken overland from Siliguri to Phuntsholing on the border with India in south-west Bhutan. Phuntsholing is a trading town and, unlike other parts of the country, Indians can go there without a visa. Many Indian businessmen, especially Marwaris, as well as traders from Nepal and Bhutan, visit Phuntsholing in order to buy and sell various goods. Rhino horns from West Bengal are brought to Phuntsholing sometimes by people of the Bodo tribe (originally from Assam) living in West Bengal (where they are called 'Mech'). In 1992 they sold the horns to Bhutanese for around $8,600 a kilo. Bodos also bring to Phuntsholing horns from rhinos poached in Assam.
There are three main pieces of evidence verifying Phuntsholing's role in the rhino horn trade. First, there have been several seizures of Indian horns in and around this town. There has even been some trade in African rhino horn. In 1984, one African horn weighing 2.2 kilos was confiscated by Indian officials. Second, the state governments of India pay informers who have reported on this trade route. And third, a Bhutanese Princess educated at Cambridge University, Dekichoden Wangchuck, aunt of the present King (the King's father's half sister) was arrested at Taipei's Chiang Kai-shek airport in September 1993 with 22 Indian rhino horns.
Bhutanese smugglers usually transport rhino horn by road from Phuntsholing to the only airport in the country at Paro. The airport was opened in the early 1980s, but only the national airline, Druk Air, is allowed to use it, due to the hazards of landing and taking off in the high mountains. The airline at first used two small German-made aeroplanes (Domiers) to fly to Calcutta, Dhaka and Kathmandu. In the mid-1980s one BAE 146 aircraft (with four jet engines, carrying 70 people) was introduced to fly to Kathmandu, Dhaka, Calcutta, Delhi and Bangkok in order to replace the smaller Domiers. In 1992, Druk Air obtained another BAE 146. From 1985 to the present, nearly all the horns from Bhutan have been transported by Druk Air, probably to Dhaka and Bangkok. Other trade routes from Bhutan are unlikely. It is very improbable that rhino horn sold in Bhutan would be sent back by road to neighbouring India or to Nepal as neither country is an end market and there would be more chance of the horns being detected. Rhino horns would not be moved northwards through Tibet, due to the lack of a modern transport system to Tibet, nor to China because the Chinese cannot afford to buy Asian rhino horns, which are ten times the price of African horns.
A few knowledgeable officials in the Indian state governments have known that influential Bhutanese have been exporting rhino horn at least since the mid1980s. Some of these Bhutanese have diplomatic passports which notoriously assist them to move rhino horn from one country to another as their luggage is rarely inspected. (Bhutanese do not have diplomatic immunity in Taiwan, however, as their government does not recognise Taiwan as a country; this explains the Princess's 1993 arrest.) In 1994, one trader from Bhutan's capital, Thimpu, even had the audacity to use a business card stating that he was a trader in rhino horn.
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