Kaz iran ga Park 95% flooded, task onto keep animals a float
The floods in different parts of Assam have wreaked havoc inside Kaziranga National Park, a World Heritage site, killing at least 51 wild animals though 102 animals have been rescued, officials said on Tuesday. There have been reports of tigers and rhinos straying into nearby villages due to the flooding in their natural habitats.
According to officials from the Kaziranga National Park and the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), 95 per cent of the national park's 430 sq km area is now flooded. The traffic movement on the National Highway-37 near Kaziranga has been suspended. Officials said that 45 hog deer, three wild boars and one rhino, one wild buffalo and a swamp deer perished in the floodwater. However, 86 hog deer were rescued. Park Director P. Sivakumar said that rising water levels in the park areas had forced three sub-adult tigers to stray into a goat-shed in Kandolimari village. “Two of the tigers have already been driven back into the park. Efforts are on to locate the third tiger,” Sivakumar told IANS.
Formed in 1908, the Kaziranga National park, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1985, is home to over 2,200 one-horned Indian rhinoceros, nearly two third of the total world population.
Each year, the monsoon floods inundate the National Park, forcing a large number of the wild animals to leave the park and head towards
the nearby hills in Karbi Anglong district by crossing National Highway-37 that passes near the park's boundary.
The officials said 45 animals, mostly hog deer, were injured due to flood and one by vehicle hit. Of the 223 camps of forest personnel guarding the park, 173 have been inundated and 14 others vacated due to rising water levels. Heavy monsoon rains over the past few weeks have led to massive flooding of the northeastern state, inundating 2,763 villages and affecting over 24 lakh people and 103,806 hectares of crop area in 27 of its 33 districts.