If the unrelenting poaching of rhinoceros in the wild continues at the present rate, they might be pushed to extinction by the end of this decade, experts have warned.

In the last six years, poaching of black and white rhinoceros has soared. With only 13 rhinos being slaughtered in 2007, the number has dramatically risen to 1,004 last year, Press Trust of India reported.

"There are now just 20,000 white rhinoceros and 5,000 black rhinoceros left in the wild. If poaching carries on at the rate it is now for six more years it will devastate the numbers," Will Travers, chief executive of the Born Free Foundation, said.

"There will probably be no free-living rhinoceros as the remaining numbers will be fenced off in military-style compounds which are alarmed and heavily guarded by armed patrols," Travers said, while speaking after attending a summit on wildlife crime in Pretoria, South Africa, recently.

Rhinoceros are hacked to death for their horns by criminal gangs who are looking to make millions of pounds a year, the Daily Expert reported.

Ailments such as hangovers are treated by using the horns as traditional medicine in the Far East in powder form, PTI reported.

"Poaching is a low-penalty crime and that has to change. We need better intelligence gathering, more equipment, and manpower," Travers said after the conference.

Attended by 140 experts, the conference was organized in response to plans by the South African government to legalize the trade in rhinoceros horn so that the proceeds can be used for conservation, the report said.

However, it would be far better of three pounds conservation tax would be charged from tourists, Travers said.

"Rhinos were once abundant throughout Africa and Asia with an approximated worldwide population of 500 000 in the early twentieth century," Save the Rhinos reported. "However, despite intensive conservation efforts, poaching of this iconic species is dramatically increasing, pushing the remaining rhinos closer and closer towards extinction."