Kaziranga National Park (KNP) is globally known as the home of the one-horned rhinoceros, though it also shelters and attracts a wide variety of exotic birds from all over the world, apart from being the habitat of the wild buffalo, the great Indian swamp deer and other varieties of wildlife forms. KNP is equally famous for medicinal plants, herbs and other exotic flora. But it has earned the status of a national park because of the one-horned rhino, and it is primarily the rhino which attracts visitors. Other than Nepal, which has about 200 one-horned rhinos, KNP is the only major natural habitat of this rare mammal. In consideration of its uniqueness to Asom, the rhino has been declared as the State symbol just like the peacock has been declared the national symbol. It is, therefore, natural that everyone in Asom should take pride in the rhino. The encyclopedic information on rhinoceros is reproduced here for general information. "The once-numerous rhinoceros family, Rhinocerotidae, in the order Perissodactyla, now contains only five living species. All are threatened with extinction, some imminently. The three species of Asiatic rhinos include the Indian rhino, Rhinoceros unicornis; the nearly extinct Javan rhino, R. sondacius; and the Sumatran rhino, Dicerohinus sumatrensis. The two species of African rhinos are the black rhino, Diceros bicornis, and the white rhino, Ceratotherium simum. The Indian and Javan rhinos are one-horned; the other three species are two-horned. The rhino's horn is composed of keratin, as is the cow's horn, but unlike the cow's horn it is of a fused, fibrous construction and solid throughout, with no hollow for a core of bone. The fibres represent greatly modified hairs. The horn is attached to the skin and is supported by a raised, roughened area on the skull. Because many Asians, particularly the Chinese, believe that the rhino horn has aphrodisiac properties, the horns are widely sought after, and this demand accounts for much of the illegal killing of rhinos. The Indian rhino, native to northeastern India, is now found only in a few protected areas. The Javan rhino, once distributed across southeastern Asia into the East Indies, today survives only in a small preserve on the island of Java. The Sumatran rhino is now confined to a few widely scattered areas in southeastern Asia and in the East Indies' (Grolier Encyclopedia of Knowledge, Vol. 16). It is obvious that due to human greed, the one-horned rhino population in its original abode is becoming extinct and the trend, if not halted, would lead to its total extinction, meeting the fate of the much-researched dinosaurs. Unfortunately, rhino horns or small pieces thereof are reportedly in demand not only in China, but in our country too, for which members of some innocuous religious cults as well as some members of the astrological fraternity and the so-called country physicians are also responsible. As per a recent media report, a rhino horn fetches between Rs 4 to 7 lakh in the Indian underground market, and between Rs 12 to 20 lakh in the international market. For such high prices, unscrupulous poachers, who are always after a quick buck, will not mind facing personal risk and going for illegal rhino hunt. The poaching for rhino horns is not anything new; it has been going on in Asom for decades together, especially after the rhino was declared an extinct variety of wild animals under the Wildlife Protection and Preservation Act. Though every killing by poachers was invariably condemned by wildlife lovers and the public in general, so far it was not taken as an outrage against Asom, as has happened in recent days. The killing of a female rhino at the KNP by a gang of poachers, allegedly in connivance with Forest Department officials, on January 19 by first injuring it critically with a bullet and then cutting the horn when the rhino was still alive and bleeding profusely, and thereafter the killing of her baby as well in the most gruesome manner, has shaken the world community and hurt every resident of Asom. This single incident, with heart-rending pictures of the bleeding rhino and her fallen baby flashed across the world by the ever vigilant media, has tarnished the name of Asom. Since then, protests in different forms have been going on all over the State, with most of the protesters blaming the KNP officials, the Forest Minister of the State, and the State Government as a whole for their abject failure in preventing the poachers from committing such diabolic acts. As if that incident was not enough, another such killing was repeated by the desperadoes in the wee hours of February 5 by brutally killing another rhino inside KNP. As per a media report, this