Death Count on Assam’s Killer Highway Higher This Monsoon

In Assam’s Kaziranga National Park, more animals are getting killed while crossing highways than by poachers.

It is not the poachers, but the speeding vehicles on National Highway 37 that have turned out to be the “killers” of some of the precious wild animals of Kaziranga National Park during the recent floods in Assam.

The first spate of flood, which hit Assam during the last one week, inundated almost 60 percent of the Kaziranga National Park. The total count of animal casualties was 81 till Monday, as the water level had reached up to eight to 12 feet in several spots inside the UNESCO World Heritage Site during the peak of the deluge.

Also Read: #Assamfloods – Raising a Baby Rhino Who Longs For His Mum

Threat to Animals

The national park has a total area of 429 square km, and is sandwiched between the mighty Brahmaputra on the north and National Highway on the south. The other important rivers in the park are the Diphlu and the Mora Dhansiri.

The wild reserve is home to more than 2,450 rhinos and has the highest density of tigers among protected areas in the world. It was declared a Tiger Reserve in 2006. The park also has a large breeding population of elephants, wild water buffalo, and swamp deer.

It is sad because we lost many animals on the national highway this year.

Dr Rathin Barman, Deputy Director of the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI)

For more than a decade, Dr Barman has been playing a pro-active role in the rescue of wild animals in and around Kaziranga during the floods.

He heads the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC), a combined initiative of the WTI, Assam Government and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). CWRC is the first wild animal rescue and rehabilitation centre in India.

Also Read: HC Will Not Interfere in Kaziranga Eviction Drive That Killed Two

Killer Highway

According to Dr Satyendra Singh, Director of Kaziranga National Park, of the 81 animals of Kaziranga killed due to the flood, 13 of them died on National Highway 37, after being hit by the speeding vehicles, mostly loaded trucks and buses.

The death toll on the highway is much higher this time in comparison to the previous years.

In 2016, flood level was much higher in Kaziranga, and 212 animals died by drowning. But only six animals were killed by the speeding vehicles on the highway. This time, the death count on the national highway has more than doubled.

This time, the water level was much lower in comparison to the flood levels of 2016 or 2012. We could have been fortunate this time with minimum casualties. But, it is a matter of serious concern that we lost so many animals on the highway.

Dr Rathin Barman, Deputy Director of the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI)

In the monsoons, when the Brahmaputra river pours into Kaziranga’s grasslands, the wild animals are forced to migrate to the hills of Karbi Anglong by crossing the national highway, using specific ‘corridors’ to access high grounds. There are four specific corridors that the animals use – Panbari, Haldibari, Kanchanjuri and Amguri.

According to the officials of wildlife NGOs, blocking of the corridors, due to habitation and building of tourist infrastructures, has led to the sudden increase in the number of death count on the “killer” highway.  The national highway connects half a dozen districts in eastern Assam, and is the gateway to Nagaland, Manipur and the eastern Arunachal Pradesh districts.

Also Read: Rhino Poached in Kaziranga Within 12-Hours of Will-Kat’s Visit

Blocking Wildlife Corridors

Once the animals are on the National Highway 37, the Kaziranga National Park authorities have no direct jurisdiction as the area falls within the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council territory.

Uttam Saika, Honorary Wildlife Warden of Kaziranga

The wildlife NGO activists complained that in addition to the tourists’ infrastructures, there are more than a dozen stone crushing units, limestone quarries and saw mills, which block the wildlife corridors, forcing the animals to run chaotically on the national
highway.

Dr Satyendra Singh also agreed that blocking of the wildlife corridors was one of the main reasons for the increase in the death count of the animals on the national highway.

But, what can I do as the director of the national park? Clearing of the wildlife corridors is beyond my jurisdiction.

Dr Satyendra Singh, Director, Kaziranga National Park

Lack of Raised Platforms

For the first time, drones were used in Kaziranga to monitor animal movement during the flood. But, the drones were of practically no use to check the animal deaths on the national highway.

The NGO workers also complained that lack of enough highlands within the Kaziranga National Park forced the wild animals to come on the highway to cross over to safer grounds for food and shelter.

The state government in 2016 had announced to artificially create at least three dozen raised platforms at strategic locations in the national park for the animals to take shelter during high floods. Unfortunately, the raised platforms, which were planned 16 feet higher than Kaziranga’s average altitude of 196 feet, are still not ready.

At present, the national park has 111 highlands built during the 1990s. However, it is not enough to provide shelter to the entire population during floods, and some of the highlands are old, and need immediate renovation.

(The writer is a journalist based in Guwahati, and author of the book, ‘Prachanda: The Unknown Revolutionary’. He can be reached @anirban1970.)

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