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All over India, there is a crisis of
epic proportions. The poor and defenseless Nag Champa are being hunted
and killed to create the oils for incense and candles. The wonderful
musky odor of the Nag Champa has been a favorite of many spiritual
leaders, new movement organizations, and young people all over the
world. Little did anyone know until recently that the only way to
produce the sent of Nag Champa is to capture and remove the sent gland
from these poor little creatures? The Nag Champa has one natural enemy -
the human. Please help me to stop this barbaric act against such a
peaceful little animal. There are only 2000 Nag Champa left in the wild
today. The numbers are dwindling. Please be my friend and help me save
the Nag Champa.
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Hunters use small arrows with blunt, rounded
tips that stun the Nag Champa. They collect the Nag Champa alive
so that scent glands are full when the extraction process
begins. On an average day, each hunter collects a dozen or
more Nag Chmapa. Each man is paid up to 12 cents per Nag Chamapa.
When mixed with a base oil, the oil collected from one Nag Champa is
enough to make roughly 16 ounces of Nag Champa scented oil or in other
words, a thousand or so sticks of incense can be produced from each
animal. The producers of the Nag Champa products are simply
profiteers, who could care less about this poor defenseless
creature or it's importance to the eco system of it's habitat.
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Nag Champa are dissected for their scent
gland. The rest of the animal is simply tossed aside or turned
into dog feed or furtilizer. What you see to the right is
the cherished scent gland of the Nag Champa. About the size
of a quarter, it is small but potent. The Nag Champa scent glands
reach their peak when the Nag Champa is young, about eight months
old. The average life expectancy of a Nag Champa would be up to
seven years. But because it is being hunted down and killed on a
daily basis, the Nag Champa numbers have dwindled. None of them
are reaching maturity and reproduction is very low.
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Please help us do something to save the Nag Champa.
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