Kaziranga flood: Assam forest minister orders park authority to protect animals

The animals were forced to move to Karbi hills after more than half area of the park got inundated by the current deluge.

The state forest minister also asked the park authority to make vigil along the Karbi hills to protect wild animals from poachers.

Kaziranga National Park Director Satyendra Singh said that, over 63 percent areas of the park are still under water and several animals were forced to move to the safer places.

The current flood claimed over 50 animals including three rhinos and several hog deer were killed by speeding vehicles on National Highway 37 while the animals were trying to move to the Karbi hills areas by crossing the highway.

“We are monitoring the movements of the animals those have taken shelter in the hill areas. Poachers are also trying to kill them,” the park director said.

“Following the flood, several animals have taken shelter in the highlands inside the park,” Satyendra Singh said.

The park director said that, 33 highlands (raised platforms) are under construction in Kaziranga National Park.

“Fund for construction of Highlands was sanctioned by the Project Director, to the Divisional Forest Officer, Eastern Assam Wildlife Division (Kaziranga National Park). After evaluation of tenders, contract for construction of highlands was awarded to the qualified lowest evaluated responsive bidders on March 21. The total contract value of all 33 numbers of highlands is Rs 13.96 crores and number of contractors involved is 26," Satyendra Singh said.

"The contracts were signed and work was started by the Contractors immediately. But, this year due to continuous rain the work could not be completed before the monsoon. This year the rain started on March 28 in Kaziranga and it continued after gap of every 4-5 days. The contractor could not get even 10 clear days to construct the highlands. Even then 30 per cent work has been completed by the Contractors and wilds animals are taking shelter even on the half completed highlands during the current flood. The contractor did the work upto May 28, but due to continuous rain they could not complete the work,” Singh said.

The top forest official said that, the work will now start from the month of November, 2017 and will be completed within 60 days time.

“No payment to any of the contractors has been made till now against works already done. The complete money is lying with the DFO, Kaziranga National Park and the Project Director, Project on Forest and Biodiversity Conservation. All the contractors have applied for extension of their contract period which will be done soon,” the park official said.

The park official also said that, the authority has used drones to monitor the animals movement during the flood and tight vigil also taken up.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)