Animal
9 rhinos among over 100 animal deaths in Assam’s Kaziranga during floods
Nine rhinos are among the 108 wild animals that have died during this year’s floods at Assam’s Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve (KNPTR). However, active efforts by authorities aided in the recovery of an exhausted rhino who had strayed on to the national highway on Saturday.
On Saturday, the carcass of a female rhino that had died due to drowning was found in the central range of the park. Last month, one rhino had died due to natural causes in the western range of the park. All the other deaths are due to drowning, confirmed KNPTR officials.
According to a bulletin issued by park authorities on Sunday, nearly 85% area of the park, spread over 430 sq km is underwater at present. Forty-three of the 223 forest camps inside the park are inundated of which 6 have been vacated.
Till now, 60 animals (36 hog deer, eight rhinos, three wild buffalo, one python, seven wild boar, two swamp deer, one Sambar and two porcupines) have died due to drowning. Fifteen hog deer have died after getting hit by vehicles on national highway 37 close to the park while trying to cross it to escape floodwaters.
Fifteen rescued animals died during treatment at the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC), located near the park.
According to the KNPTR bulletin, 51 animals have been injured due to floods and one by a speeding vehicle. Till date, 134 animals have been rescued. Of them, 110 have been released into the wild, while 8 others including a one-year-old female rhino calf are under treatment at CWRC.
On Saturday, an adult male rhino had strayed out of the park and rested for several hours on NH37. The animal, which was being guarded by police and forest personnel, moved back to the park on Sunday morning.
“The animal was very exhausted as it was in the water for 3-4 day and we were planning to shift it to the state zoo in Guwahati. But after resting for several hours it moved back inside. We are keeping a watch on it,” said P Sivakumar, director KNPTR.
Annual floods are common in Kaziranga, the biggest habitat of one-horned rhinos. The park has around 2,400 rhinos and 121 tigers. Last year, floods had claimed nearly 200 animals in the park, including 18 rhinos.
“The rhino which came out of the park had some vision impairment and was extremely exhausted. We gave it treatment as well as multivitamins after which it recovered and started movement,” said wildlife veterinarian Shamshul Ali.
Bibhab Talukdar, the CEO and Secretary-General of Aaranyak, a wildlife NGO, stated that though Kaziranga experiences several waves of floods each year, this season it is a bit severe as there has been not much respite in between.
“When there’s frequent flooding, the animals don’t get enough time to recover. They are usually exhausted easily and hungry as well. Since the animals move towards higher locations in Karbi Anglong after crossing NH37, it is very crucial to protect that area from human intervention,” he said.
With inputs from Hindustan Times
News from Assam Floods
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The Manas National Park and Tiger Reserve in Assam is all set to re-open for the tourist season 2023-2024.
The national park will be opened for tourists on October 1. This was announced by Rajen Choudhury, the Field Director of Manas National Park in an official communiqué issued on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, reports said that a special event has been organized at the Bahbari Range of the national park in lieu of this. Notably, the national park was reportedly closed since June 5 this year owing to the monsoon season.
The official notice read, “Consequent to completion of the stipulated monsoon closure period as prescribed by the Government of India, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, National Tiger Conservation Authority letter no. 15-1(17)/2015-NTCA dated August 18, 2015, it is hereby informed that the Manas National Park and Tiger Reserve, will be open for the 2023-24 ecotourism season with effect from October 1, 2023, subject to relevant provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and the Assam Wildlife (Protection) Rules, 1997, till further notice.”
Another skeleton of a One horned Rhino recovered at Manas National Park near Rupohi camp in the Bhuyanpara range on Saturday.
Dr. Vaibhav C. Mathur, the field director of the park reached the site after the incident took place. Prompt action was taken by the authorities to recover the rhino’s carcass.
Although the horn has been recovered from the spot, the actual cause of the rhino’s death is yet to be officially ascertain.
Earlier on August 2, the skeleton discovered at Manas National Park in Assam. Sources said the skeleton was recovered from the Bansbari zone in the national park.
The forest officials reported that the rhino might have lost its life during a fight against an adult bull.
Last month, another skeleton was recovered from a dense forest inside Manas National Park where the horn is missing from the spot.
Meanwhile, Greater Manas Conservation demanded proper investigation into the case.
What’s so special about the horn?
The Rhinos horn is the most expensive product in the black market fetching more than gold, platinum and diamond. It is used in Chinese medicine.According to traditional Chinese texts, such as Li Shih-chen’s 1597 medical text “Pen Ts’ ao Kang Mu”, rhino horn has been used in Chinese medicine for more than 2,000 years and is used to treat fever, rheumatism, gout, and other disorders. It also states that the horn could also cure snakebites, hallucinations, typhoid, headaches, carbuncles, vomiting, food poisoning etc.
On January 7, doctors at the University of Maryland Medical School in the U.S. made news (of pig heart transplant) when they transplanted a genetically modified pig heart into a 57-year-old man.
Few remember now that Dhaniram Baruah, a cardio-thoracic surgeon based in Sonapur near Guwahati, transplanted the organs of a pig into a human body in 1997. However, Dr. Baruah’s xenotransplantation procedure ended badly.
Xenotransplantation is the process of grafting or transplanting organs or tissues between members of different species.
“It is not easy for a human body to accept the organs of a pig. Time will tell whether the human body will accept the organ of a genetically-altered pig,” the 72-year-old doctor, who lost his voice after undergoing throat surgery some time ago, said via S.A. Achrekar, a senior scientist at his research institute in Sonapur.
At an international conference in 1995, Dr. Baruah had said pigs are close to humans in various aspects. He had at the time developed an “electric motor-driven artificial biological heart made of ox pericardium that was implanted in a pig”.
Dr. Baruah said he had carried out 102 animal experiments on xenotransplantation. He transplanted a pig’s heart, lung and kidneys to Purno Saikia, a 32-year-old end-stage organ failure patient, on January 1, 1997. Jonathan Ho, a Hong Kong-based doctor, had assisted him in the transplantation at his research centre.
But Sakia died a week later, triggering an uproar. The two doctors were arrested on January 10 under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994, booked for culpable homicide and imprisoned for 40 days. Subsequently, the Assam government formed an inquiry committee that found pig heart implants to be unethical and unlawful. Source- The Hindu.
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