Poaching of single-horn rhinoceros in Assam forest reserves makes international media headlines, but often it gets subdued coverage for the wiping out of many rhinos in a single wave of flood that hits the region after incessant rains for weeks across vast localities comprising upper riparian countries. Responsible officials confirm that the last wave of the Assam flood snatched away the lives of 13 one-horned rhinos, whereas it took six years to lose a similar number of precious animals to poaching inside the highly protected forest reserves like Kaziranga and Manas.

The second wave of flooding in July left a trail of devastation, killing over a hundred people, damaging more than 25,000 hectares of crop area, and devastating 10,50,000 domestic animals and poultry. The natural disaster temporarily displaced thousands of families and smashed a number of embankments, roads, bridges, buildings, and other infrastructure in the state. The swollen Brahmaputra river water inundated Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve for many days, and hundreds of wild animals lost their lives.

At its peak, the deluge hit over 2.7 million people (out of the 33 million population) in 30 districts of Assam, where more than 3,500 villages were submerged by the flood water for many weeks. Thousands of families in the districts of Dhubri, Cachar, Golaghat, Darrang, Goalpara, Lakhimpur, Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Biswanath, Charaideo, Chirang, Dhemaji, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Kamrup & Kamrup (metropolitan), Karbi Anglong, Karimganj, Hailakandi, Kokrajhar, Majuli, Morigaon, Nagaon, Hojai, Nalbari, Sivasagar, Sonitpur, Tamulpur, Tinsukia, Udalguri, etc. had to take shelter in over 700 relief camps run by the district administration. The muddy flood water from the Brahmaputra, Barak, Kushiyara, Subansiri, Burhi Dihing, Dikhou, Disang, Dhansiri, Jia-Bharali, Puthimari, Kapili, Beki, Dhaleswari, Pagladiya, Burhadiya, etc. rivers inundated a large area of arable land across the state.

Kaziranga’s field director, Sonali Ghosh, informed us that 215 wild animals, including 13 rhinos and 170 deer, 8 porcupines, 5 pigs, and 1 buffalo, died in the forest reserve due to drowning and other causes. The park authority could rescue 157 animals, including two rhino calves, and later 137 animals were released to the wild after necessary treatment. Ms Ghosh also added that most of the forest camps (out of 233) inside the park went under flood water.

The safe habitat for the largest population of one-horned rhinos in the world eventually experiences flooding every year. As the core 430 square kilometre area (now extended to 1,300 sq km) goes under the water, the animals take refuge in the highlands erected inside it. Many animals try to cross the Asian Highway 1 (National Highway-37) on its southern border to climb the hilly areas of Karbi Anglong.

While crossing the highway, some animals are killed by the speeding vehicles, and hence the authorities instruct the drivers to maintain a safe speed limit to avoid any unwanted incidents. Often, the vehicles are escorted by forest officials while crossing the park to prevent accidents with the fleeing animals.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site, which gives shelter to more than 2600 rhinos along with Asiatic elephants, water buffalo, royal Bengal tigers, and a variety of birds, faced a major flood in 2017, when over 350 animals, including 24 rhinos, died due to drowning and colliding with moving vehicles on the highway. Otherwise, the number of poaching incidents in Kaziranga has been reduced in the last few years, thanks to the brutal laws against the poachers, the strengthening of ground staff inside the protected forest areas, and increasing public awareness in the fringe localities.

Statistics reveal that the highly protected Kaziranga lost two adult rhinos in January of this year to poachers, who took away the horns understandably to earn an attractive amount of money from the illegal wildlife markets. Last year, Kaziranga witnessed one rhino poaching incident (Manas National Park and Tiger Reserve also lost one rhino to poachers), and it was preceded by two incidents in 2021 and 2020, whereas three rhinos were killed in 2019 and seven in 2018. So it took six years to lose 18 rhinos to the poachers in Assam to date. Needless to mention, Assam recorded a zero rhino-poaching year in 2022 to draw the attention of world conservationists.

Rhinos are recognized as vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and India’s Wildlife Protection Act, formulated in 1972, gives enormous power to the forest rangers to protect the grass-eating pachyderm. The global population of rhinos remains around 27,000 individuals. With the decrease in rhino poaching incidents in India and Nepal (its Chitwan National Park, Parsa NP, Bardia NP, and Shuklaphanta NP cumulatively support 750 single-horn rhinos), the pressure mounts in South Africa, which gives shelter to over 15,000 two-horn rhinos. The country witnesses the killing of over 400 rhinos annually (more than one poaching every day), seemingly to feed the demand in Asian countries.

The rhino horns, grown by both males and females after attaining six years, are believed to have medicinal values supposed to cure typhoid, headache, stomach ailment, food poisoning, snakebites, and even cancer. Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, Vietnam and the Middle East are also known to be huge markets for rhino horns, where their use for medical purposes and scientific research is legalised. Many also unscientifically believe that one can achieve unusual sexual power with the help of rhino horns (using them as an aphrodisiac or traditional Viagra). But the veterinarians always argue that rhino horns comprise the same protein that constitutes the formation of hair and fingernails, and they do not possess any quality for sexual stimulation.

Assam’s other world heritage site, Manas Forest Reserve, currently gives shelter to around 45 rhinos with a host of other inmates like water buffalo, tiger, leopard, golden langur, gaur, pygmy hog, etc. Other forest reserves, namely the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary (around 107 rhinos) and Orang National Park (125), support the rhino population and increase it to 2,650 individuals. With a drastic reduction in poaching following the deployment of heavily armed ground forces and other modern gadgets, Assam expects to increase the rhino population to 3,000 very soon. Till date, a number of poachers have been arrested, and many have died in encounters with the security forces. The captured poachers and their associates admit that they had taken the risk of killing rhinos inside the restricted forest reserves because of enormous monetary benefits.

So it’s high time to mitigate the perennial flood. Often, government schemes (mostly embankment-centric) are announced and implemented, but they only work partially. When flood mitigation becomes too difficult, discussion should focus on minimising the devastating impact with proper policies. Recently, the Union government proposed to create at least 50 large ponds in the state, where the extra volume of Brahmaputra water will be stored temporarily to reduce the intensity of destruction. Many natural lakes on the river banks are also expected to be cleaned up to carry out additional activities like agriculture, irrigation, pisciculture, and tourism. New Delhi should continue pursuing upper-riparian countries like Bhutan and Tibet (now under China) to receive timely alerts about unusually high rainfalls and hydropower activities (including damning water resources) in their places.

The writer is a Guwahati-based special representative of The Statesman