Kaziranga National Park hit by floods, rhinos begin seeking higher ground

Guwahati: Due to incessant monsoon rains during the past few days across Assam, floods have now hit Kaziranga National Park which is known for one-horned rhinos, and several areas of the national park have been inundated by floodwaters, reports said.

During the past week, as floods hit Kaziranga, wild animals including rhinos have come closer to human habitat, and are scrambling for a patch of dry ground. It has been reported a rhino was seen roaming openly on National Highway 37 early in the morning on Saturday, June 27. Flood-time is the time when poachers prowl in the chaos wreaked by the natural disaster and they try to collect the horns of dead rhinos.

To tackle the threat of poachers, the forest department has been keeping an eye out for the treasures of Kaziranga - the endangered rhinos - to ensure that these majestic beasts are not in trouble.

Last year was especially harrowing for the animals. Kaziranga National Park, home to the largest population of Greater one-horned rhinos (Rhinoceros unicornis) in the world, sits on the southern banks of the mighty Brahmaputra River, which runs through Assam, and is especially prone to floods. In mid-July, a month after the first rains fell in Assam last year, the river burst its banks, inundating land on either side of its vast width. At the flood's peak, as much as 95% of Kaziranga was underwater, and 21 rhinos were drowned in the deluge.

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