Centre nod to artificial highland inside Kaziranga

JORHAT: The Centre has accepted Assam's proposal to construct a 32-km artificial highland inside the Kaziranga National Park (KNP) to shelter animals from the floods. Work on the project will begin as soon as the monsoon is over, KNP director P Sivakumar told TOI on Sunday.
"This will be the largest artificial highland inside the park. The highland will begin from the Kaziranga forest range and stretch up to the park's sixth additional areas under Biswanath forest range. When floods hit the national park, animals will take shelter on this highland and after the monsoon is over, forest officials will use it for patrolling," he added.
Kaziranga has 274 kilometres of roads inside the park for tourists and patrolling purposes. However, of this, only 20 km are in the highlands. Since the floods hit the park a month ago, most roads have been submerged. The park has 144 artificial highlands, of which 33 were created in 2019 and 111 in 1990. However, it still lacks space to house all animals hit by the deluge every year, for which a large number of animals are forced to go to the nearby Karbi hills by crossing National Highway 37. The park has already lost 15 hog deer this year because of collisions with vehicles while they were trying to cross the highway.
Meanwhile, the flood situation in Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve remained unchanged till Sunday evening as four main rivers - Brahmaputra, Diphlu, Mora Diphlu and Mora Dhanshari - are still flowing above the danger mark.
Kaziranga has lost 108 animals, including 9 rhinos and 82 hog deer, to the floods this year. On Sunday, too, a rhino was found dead near Kathpora tower in the central forest range. 85% of the total area of the national park remains under water.