Assam: Floods claim lives of feral horses, hog deer in Assam national parks
A nimals have started crossing the National Highway 37 that runs through the Park in search of dry land and one hog deer was killed in the act on Saturday evening.
GUWAHATI- At least three feral horses have died in the deluge-hit Dibru-Saikhowa National Park while a hog deer was killed by a speeding vehicle when it was trying to escape floodwaters in Kaziranga National Park as vast tracts of the parks in Assam have been inundated, Forest officials said on Sunday. Almost 70 per cent of the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park has been flooded, forcing animals to flee to highlands, a Forest department official told PTI.
“Bodies of three feral horses have been recovered so far. They have been swept away. Two more have been rescued but their condition is critical,” the official of Dibru-Saikhowa National Park said. The Dibru-Saikhowa National Park, spread over Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts at the eastern tip of the state, is famous for its small population of about 70 feral horses which are the fourth and fifth generation of wild horses presumed to have escaped from army camps during the World War II.
The overall flood situation in Kaziranga National Park (KNP) is also turning critical with around 50 per cent of the area already under water, its Director P Sivakumar told PTI.
A nimals have started crossing the National Highway 37 that runs through the Park in search of dry land and one hog deer was killed in the act on Saturday evening, he said.
More than 2.25 lakh people in 15 districts of the state had been affected by floods till Sunday, as per an Assam State Disaster Management Authority bulletin.
