One-horned rhinos and Asiatic water buffaloes take shelter in a highland area inside the Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary in Morigaon district on September 2.

SANTIRAM CHETRI’S eyes were red and swollen from lack of sleep the previous night. Ever since the flood waters of the Brahmaputra river entered the Kaziranga National Park in the first week of September, Chetri, who is the forester of the Bagari range of the national park, and other officials and staff of this World Heritage Site could hardly sleep for three hours in the night for days together. When darkness descends on flooded Kaziranga, the 45-kilometre stretch of National Highway 37 between Jakhalabandha in central Assam’s Nagaon district and Bokakhat in upper Assam’s Golaghat district that passes through the park witnesses a unique battle of life and death.

While animals flee their flooded habitat to take shelter on the highlands across the national highway, park officials and staff try to save them from being knocked down by speeding vehicles.

The Kaziranga National Park, famous for the one-horned rhinoceros, is located in the flood plains of the Brahmaputra. The entire area has been formed by the silt carried by the different river systems flowing through it. Every year, flood waters from the Brahmaputra enter the park from the western boundary and through the Diffolu and Moridiffolu rivers.

This year’s flood submerged more than 60 per cent of the park and killed 13 animals, including three rhinos. Eight hog deer, a swamp deer and a monitor lizard were knocked down by vehicles; two rhino calves were drowned and another calf, which had got separated from its mother, was eaten by a tiger. In 1988, floods in Kaziranga killed 1,203 animals, including 38 rhinos; in 1998, the casualty was 652, including 39 rhinos; in 2004 it was 98, including 11 rhinos. The zeal of the park authorities and staff to conserve Kaziranga’s wildlife has helped reduce the casualties this time.

The flood caused by the Brahmaputra in another important rhino land, the Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary in central Assam’s Morigaon district, was equally taxing for its officials and staff; 90 per cent of the sanctuary got flooded, and the animals were forced to take shelter on an artificial highland. Range Officer Mukul Tamuly said two rhino calves drowned after they got caught in the thick of water hyacinth. With five rhinos for every square kilometre of the sanctuary, Pabitora has the highest population density of rhinos in the world.

The Director of the Kaziranga park, S.N. Buragohain, told Frontline that the annual floods had both positive and negative effects on the ecosystem and management of the national park. To counter the negative impact, the park authorities introduced round-the-clock patrolling along NH-37 from Bokakhat to Jakhalabandha during the entire flood period, improved the barriers and rumble strips and erected them in strategic locations to reduce chances of animals being knocked down. On an experimental basis, the park authorities introduced a time card for vehicles plying on this 45-km stretch and this produced positive results.

Over the years, tackling floods and protecting and conserving animals and their habitats have become a challenging task for the KNP authorities because of constraints such as shortage of staff and funds. The sanctioned staff strength is 504, but the actual strength is short by 78. And this staff strength was sanctioned when Kaziranga’s area was 430 sq km. Now the park area has increased to 940 sq km. Against an annual requirement of Rs 1.5 crore (excluding salaries), the park gets less than Rs.50 lakh. It has a fleet of 23 vehicles and eight motorised boats. Of these, six vehicles are lying idle. The park requires at least Rs.25 lakh to keep the fleet running, which is essential for better management. Against this, it gets only Rs.5 lakh, which is provided by Oil India Limited.

Domesticated elephants numbering 49, including five calves, serve as an important means of transport throughout the year. They are also an important source of revenue during the tourist season. But there are only 26 mahouts. Officials and other staff are not paid travelling or dearness allowance, which restricts their movement.

As the animals start migrating when the floods come, there surface problems such as the movement of large masses of water hyacinth along the flowing water and their getting stuck under bridges and culverts. This leads to damage to these structures and the trapping of animals in the water hyacinth, sometimes leading to death or injury.

During floods the favourite fodder grasses of the animals become scarce and they have to subsist on water hyacinth, coarse grasses and other species of undergrowth in the forests. There is only one point at Haldibari where the boundary of the park touches the forest of the Karbi Anglong hills and provides a convenient corridor for migrating animals during floods.

A number of water bodies inside the park have shrunk owing to siltation caused by floods. The proliferation of weeds such as Mikenia, Mimosa and Eichhornia causes ecological degradation of the habitat. Serious efforts to eradicate them have been made in the recent past.

Erosion has also caused a serious loss of landmass in the park. Every year large chunks of land from the northern boundary are washed away by the Brahmaputra. The points of erosion go on changing according to the change of course of the river. Erosion has reduced the present area of the park to 40,790 ha as against the notified area of 42,993 ha.

Dibya Dhar Gogoi, Divisional Forest Officer, Kaziranga, says Kaziranga is not just about poaching of rhinos or anti-poaching measures to protect them. It involves larger management strategies like habitat management and the tackling of natural calamities, which are determined by sustained research on habitat changes, animal behaviour and changes in the ecosystem.

“It is a classic example of how human intervention saved rhinos from naturally getting extinct. Had there been no human interventions, then habitat destruction by nature alone, like invasion of grassland by weeds, would have made the rhino and other animals extinct,” he adds.

The estimated number of rhinos grew from 40 in 1911 to 366 in 1966, 1,552 in 1999, and 1,855 in 2006. This is billed as the century’s greatest conservation success story in the world. The challenge before the park authorities now is to sustain this success by effectively tackling floods and erosion, preventing poaching, and managing the habitats and the ever-increasing tourist inflow.

Sushanta Talukdar