Assam’s Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, which is the biggest sanctuary in the world for rhinos, has been ravaged by the floods in the state. As a result, the rhinos have started straying out of the sanctuary, and into the houses of villages along the Brahmaputra river in the Moregaon region.
The Indian Express reported that this year’s unusually prolonged deluge in Assam — which has taken 97 lives and affected nearly 40 lakh people — has resulted in a serious shortage of food forcing the animals to move out of the sanctuary for such long stretches for the first time.
“It is a very serious problem,” says MK Yadava, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden, Assam, “For the first time, we have had to provide them with grass and fodder from outside.”
As of Saturday, ninety per cent of the sanctuary remains submerged. “While floods are a natural occurrence, the situation is grave this year and the animals are stressed — all the grass is submerged,” says Jitendra Kumar, DFO, Guwahati Wildlife Division.
Meanwhile, the state continues to be ravaged by heavy rains and is predicted to have a downpour for a few more days. This has caused widespread alarm, since hundreds of people have been displaced from their homes, and livelihoods have been massively affected.