141 animals found dead in Kaziranga National Park

As many as 141 animals, including seven rhinos, have been found dead in the flooded Kaziranga National Park, a senior forest department official said today.

The official said in the second wave of floods in Assam, 80 per cent of the park's 481 sq km area was inundated.

Since August 10, seven rhinos, 122 swamp deer, two elephants, three wild boars, two hog deer, three sambhar deer, one buffalo and one porcupine died, KNP Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Rohini Ballav Saikia said here, adding, "Carcasses are being recovered daily."

Out of the seven dead rhinos, six drowned while the other died of natural causes. Water of the Brahmaputra river entered the KNP, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, through river Difloo since August 10 the DFO said.

Meanwhile, intensified water patrolling was on by KNP guards, task force, protection force along with those from NGOs, Wildlife Trust of India and forest department employees for rescuing, recovering and making assessment of species, trapped or dead in the KNP, Sakia said.

Asserting that loss of infrastructure and property will be another burden on KNP authority, he said preliminary work for temporary renovation would be started as soon as roads become operable.

At present, animals in KNP are moving in search of food available on both sides of NH-37 and the adjacent tea gardens towards the higher altitudes of Karbi Anglong district, the official said.

Forest department and security personnel are fixing hoardings, posters, banners to restrict speed limit of vehicles, on NH-37 passing through the park, between 20 to 40 km per hour, the DFO said.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)