As many as 66 animals including two rhinos have died due to floods in Assam’s Kaziranga national park, while 117 others have been rescued in the national park an official said on Wednesday.
The park is home to elephants, Indian hog deer, wild buffalo and the one-horned rhino, a species facing a “high risk of extinction in the wild,” according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
P Shivkumar, Director of Kaziranga national park, informed that Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal will be visiting the area to inspect the current situation.
“This year’s flood was among the highest floods in the states. So far, 66 animals have died and 170 animals have been rescued from the national park,” he informed.
The forest officials are being assisted by the civil administration, police administration and the villagers in the area, he said.
A one-year-old baby rhinoceros that was separated from its mother in the Agartoli range of the park was rescued on Wednesday morning by a team of Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) along with Kaziranga staff. The female calf has now been placed under care at the CWRC rescue centre. However, the rescue team has been unable to locate the mother.
Dhubri is the worst-hit district with over 5.51 lakh people affected. Other districts that were gravely affectedare Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Biswanath, Sonitpur, Darrang, Baksa, Nalbari, Barpeta, Chirang, Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar, Dhubri,South Salmara, Goalpara, Kamrup, Kamrup Metropolitan, Morigaon, Nagaon, Hojai, Golaghat, Jorhat, Majuli, Sivasagar, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia and Karbi Anglong.
The National Disaster Response Force and the State Disaster Response Force along with district administrations rescued 3,991 people in 24 hours on Wednesday by deploying 180 boats across the state. At present, 3,376 villages are underwater and 1,27,647.25 hectares of crop areas have been damaged across Assam, the SDMA said. It added that authorities are running 629 relief camps and distribution centres across 23 districts, where 36,320 people have taken shelter currently.
The Brahmaputra River is flowing above the danger mark at Guwahati, Dhubri and Goalpara cities. The water levels of the river are also dangerously high at Nimatighat in Jorhat and Tezpur in Sonitpur districts. Its tributaries Dhansiri at Numaligarh in Golaghat, Jia Bharali at NT Road Crossing in Sonitpur, Kopili at Kampur and Dharamtul in Nagaon, Beki at Road Bridge in Barpeta and Kushiyara at Karimganj town are also flowing above the red marks.
Considerable damage to infrastructure was also reported from many parts of the state. Embankments, roads, bridges and culverts collapsed at various places in Lakhimpur, Biswanath, Chirang, Kokrajhar, Barpeta, Darrang, Bongaigaon, Udalguri, Nagaon, Kamrup, Baksa and Dhubri districts. Massive soil erosion was witnessed in areas of Nalbari, Baksa, Bongaigaon and Kokrajhar districts.
