GUWAHATI, July 17: Floods have taken a serious toll of the National Parks and Wild Life sanctuaries of Assam and it will take quite some time to restore the infrastructure damaged in the current wave of floods. Talking to The Assam Tribune, the Minister of State for Forest, Pradyut Bordoloi said that floods caused severe damage to the infrastructure of the National Parks and Wild Life sanctuaries of the State and according to a conservative estimate, an amount of about two crore of Rupees would be required to restore the same. He said that the camps of the Forest Department personnel inside the parks and sanctuaries, patrolling paths, bridges etc have been damaged and it would take quite some time to restore the same. He revealed that apart from the Kaziranga National Park, the Manas National Park as well as the Dibru Saikhowa, Pabitora, Orang, Burachapori, Laokhowa etc have been seriously affected by the current wave of floods.
The Minister pointed out that normal flood is required for the survival of the National Parks and sanctuaries as it revitalises the water bodies, but the problem occurs when the water level rises above a certain level. This year, the floods caused problems for all the parks and sanctuaries due to high water level. He also pointed out that the Parks and sanctuaries faced worst ever floods in 1988 and 1998. Though the floods caused severe damage to infrastructure inside the parks and sanctuaries this year, the casualty of animals could be restricted due to the efforts of the Forest Department personnel, who are working round-the-clock and about a hundred Forest personnel from other reserve forests were brought to the Kaziranga National park to protect the animals.
Bordoloi said that so far three rhinos and a number of deer have been killed in the National Park. He said that a number of animals are knocked down by speeding vehicles when they try to cross the National Highway-37 in search of dry land, while, the problems for the Forest personnel aggravate as the poachers are also on the prowl by taking advantage of the situation. However, to solve the problem of animals getting knocked down by speeding vehicles on the National Highway, the State Forest Department has submitted a proposal to the Central Government for the construction of flyovers on the known corridors of movement of animals. ?If the East-West corridor is extended to the eastern most corner of the country as per the demand of the State Government, the traffic on the Highway will increase considerably and pose threat to the lives of the animals of the park. To do away with the problem, we have requested the Government of India to construct flyovers on the Highway over the known corridors of movement of animals. The Ministry of Environment and Forest has formed a committee to look into the proposal and members of the committee have already visited the State for an on the spot study of the situation,? he added. He also said that the State Government would try to apprise the Prime Minister about the need for construction of such flyovers for protection of animals.
Severe erosion by the river Brahmaputra is also posing a serious threat to the Kaziranga National Park and immediate steps must be taken to protect the park from erosion as it is losing land of the core area every year. Though floods also affected Manas National Park this year, the damage was not to the extend of what was feared. Bordoloi said that the breach of a dam in Bhutan caused widespread apprehension of extensive damage to the Park, but fortunately, the damage was not much and it was restricted to the northern side of the park. However, the restoration of the damaged roads, bridges and patrolling paths inside the Park would take some time, he added.
The Forest Department had earlier constructed a few raised platforms inside the National Park and Bordoloi admitted that those helped a great deal in protecting the lives of the animals during high floods. He said that a scheme has been prepared to construct such raised platforms inside Orang and pabitora wild life sanctuaries soon. He also said that the Forest Department would have a tough time in preventing outbreak of any disease among the animals of the parks and sanctuaries after the floodwater receeds.