Assam CM Sonowal takes stock of rhinos rescued from floods in Kaziranga
KAZIRANGA: Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Thursday took stock of nine baby rhinos rescued from the recent spate of floods and kept at a rehabilitation centre in the Kaziranga national park.
Sonowal interacted with officials and got a briefing on the status of the baby rhinos, baby elephants and some other animals who were separated from their groups when flood water inundated the park, which houses around 2400 rhinos, including 200 calf (0-1 year) and 250 juveniles (1-3 years).
The Chief Minister also feed a few rhinos and elephants at the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation where they are being kept, official sources said.
Kaziranga National Park is a world heritage site, notified by the UNESCO in 1985. The park houses world’s largest population of the one-horned rhinoceros and provides refuge to a large number of wild animals including the endangered Royal Bengal tiger and the Asian elephant.
Flanked by the Brahmaputra river towards its north, Kaziranga lies in the river’s flood plain and experiences annual flooding during monsoon.
Although, these annual inundations play a significant role in maintaining the fertility of the habitat, they also regularly cause large scale temporary displacement of wild animals.
Animals also get displaced in their attempt to escape to higher grounds, often young ones, unable to keep pace with their parents get left behind. BARABANKI (UP): NCSC Chairman PL Punia on Thursday rejected the reported finding of the Roopanwal Commission that Rohith Vemula did not belong to the SC community as “totally wrong”.
The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) chairman said the statutory body and the district collector have, in separate reports, found that the Hyderabad Central University research scholar belonged to the Dalit community, and not Other Backward Class (OBC).
“The issues raised by the Congress were sidelined and now the report is being presented that Vemula was not a Dalit,” Punia told reporters here on Wednesday.
The Congress MP alleged that the commission was set up to justify what BJP ministers had been saying from day one that Vemula was OBC and not a Dalit.
He said that the suicide by the Dalit scholar was “painful and unfortunate”. Vemula had committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling of a hostel room in the university. The suicide by Vemula had triggered a huge political storm with opposition parties launching a massive attack on the Union government over the issue. They also accused the university authorities of mishandling the situation, which led to Vemula’s suicide.
The Justice (retd.) A K Roopanwal Commission, which was constituted by the HRD Ministry to look into the circumstances leading to the death, has submitted its report.