Deluge turns mixed blessing for Kaziranga each year

Guwahati: While the annual flood is a bane for Assam, for the Kaziranga National Park, a World Heritage Site, the deluge can be a blessing.

Located on the floodplains of Brahmaputra’s southern bank, the 430 sq km-ecosystem of Kaziranga is intrinsically linked to the monsoon flood. The Kaziranga ecosystem is home to a large population of herbivores, including 2,000-odd rhinos, over 1,000 wild buffalos, elephants and eastern swamp deer.

The large swathe of Kaziranga’s grasslands, on which herbivores are dependent, are recharged by the flood.

The 200-odd water bodies dotting Kaziranga also get infused with fresh water, essential for sustaining the park’s ecosystem. The annual flood triggers fresh growth of vegetation and washes away aquatic weeds from water bodies, which otherwise choke the waterholes.

But the flood also means some damage for Kaziranga. The park experienced one of the worst floods in the last two decades in 2012, causing extensive damage to Kaziranga’s infrastructure. Hundreds of animals perished.

Experts said that with the impact of climate change becoming more palpable in the northeast’s weather pattern, Kaziranga’s flood-dependent ecosystem is becoming more and more vulnerable to the vagaries of climate change.

“Climate change models have predicted greater variability in rainfall. Extreme events such as flood are predicted to be more frequent,” the Wildlife Conservation Society India (WCSI) senior scientist Varun Goswami said.

Goswami added that droughts or drought-like situations are likely to increase. “Both drought and frequent floods are likely to have strong impact on Kaziranga,” Goswami said.

Over the years, Assam as well as other states in the northeast have been experiencing either deficient rainfall or excessive rain, further complicating the region’s weather.

For instance, in 2012, the excess rainfall in June was in sharp contrast to the preceding year’s deficit rainfall. In 2011, the intensity of the flood was significantly low and was confined to Dhemaji, Lakhimpur and Jorhat districts.

This year, the pre-monsoon shower in April has turned disastrous, claiming at least 12 lives and damaging swathes of farmlands in Assam.

A study by Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in 2012 said the frequency of floods and flashfloods in the state has increased in the last 20 years.

Experts said that with glaciers melting high above the Himalayas in the Tibetan plateau because of global warming, studies have warned that the Brahmaputra basin is likely to experience more serious flooding in the coming years.