Assam floods: Animal casualties rise in Kaziranga

GUWAHATI:

Kaziranga National Park

(KNP)’s animal casualties due to flood has increased to 141 after 31 more bodies including two rhino carcasses were retrieved on Saturday.


About 60% of KNP’s 430 sq km area is still under water, but the flood level dropped to 142 cm on Saturday. Between July 13 and July 15, flood level at many places in Kaziranga crossed five feet.

"Flood situation has significantly improved, making our patrolling staff accessible to some parts of Kaziranga to assess the damages,” a KNP official said.

The spate of flood in one week has left a trail of deaths at the World Heritage site, about 250 kms from here. Located on the flood plains of Brahmaputra, Kaziranga is home to over 2,000 rhinos.

Till Saturday, 12 rhinos died, 11 of them mostly calves were drowned and one died after falling in a pit. On Friday the count for rhino death was 10.

Highest casualty is suffered by hog deer, one of the smallest deer species. So far 101 hog deer have died, of which 71 due to drowning, 15 due to vehicle hit, 10 due to exhaustion and injuries and five during treatment.

Among other animal casualties included nine

wild boar

, nine sambar, six swamp deer, two porcupine, one elephant and one wild buffalo. Majority of these animals died due to drowning.

At present, eight animals including two rhino calves are under the veterinary care of Wildlife Trust of India (WTI)-International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)’s Centre for Widlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) based in Kaziranga.

KNP officials said that 64 animals including an elephant were rescued by the teams of forest officials and CWRC since July 13 and 52 of them have already been released.

“There are still large number of rhinos and elephants on the highlands of Karbi Anglong, outside Kaziranga. Our forest personnel along with police are closely monitoring the animals to preempt poaching attempts,” the KNP official said.

Highlands in Karbi Anglong, across the National Highway-37 on the southern boundary of Kaziranga, provides natural shelter for animals escaping the flood inside the park. Also, large number of animals have also taken refuge on the 33 highlands constructed in last two years within the park. These highlands were constructed after Kaziranga faced one of the worst deluge in 2017 after 1988. Nearly 400 animals, including 30 rhinos died in the 2017 flood.