In a bid to send a message against poaching, the officials publicly destroyed nearly 2,479 rhino horns on World Rhino Day, recovered and preserved by the government for the past four decades in northeastern India's Assam on September 22. The incident took place at Bokakhat Stadium Ground in the Golaghat district.

Visuals feature a drone being set off in the air, to begin with, the special ceremony on World Rhino Day in broad daylight. The officials gather around and assemble all the horns in as many as six giant gas furnaces, each with three tiers in place to burn the horns which have been preserved for years. Following this, they burn the horns in public view and sing the National Anthem.

A one-horned rhino is not only integral to civilization but also a symbol of the prized heritage and identity. The authorities are preserving 94 rhino horns for display at a museum to be set up at Kaziranga National Park as the use of rhino horns for medicinal purposes is a myth. This was the largest public destruction of the stockpile of horns of the One-Horned rhino and was aimed to reinforce the fact that rhino’s horns do not have any medicinal value.

Apart from that, the state cabinet collectively decided to publicly burn 2,479 pieces of rhino horns out of 2,623 rhino horns stockpiled in state treasuries as 94 rhino stockpiled rhino horns will be preserved as archive properties for academic purposes while 50 of them would be reserved for court cases.