Flooding, management both vital for Kaziranga
There is scope for putting Kaziranga’s annual flooding in its right ecological place. From replenishing channels between wetlands to aiding natural selection of a healthier stock as weak animals perish, floods serve a vital purpose
The edges of the country boat nearly kissed the flooded water of Sohola beel in Assam’s Kaziranga National Park (KNP) as the forester-boatman kept pulling the oar. A male rhino on the little grassy patch lifted its heavy head, responding to our smell carried by the wind. Another rhino pulled through the deep waters, flapping its ears and snorting. A couple of hornbills frolicked through the woods and a grey-headed fish eagle on a tree meditated along the edge of the wetland. Despite these animals making the ambience lively, an eerie silence enveloped the horizon. It was marked by the vastness of Brahmaputra’s silt-laden water. The beel (wetland) merged with the mighty Brahmaputra to form an inland ocean.
Flooding in KNP is an annual ritual, reflecting the hydrological adventures of the Brahmaputra, a transboundary river springing from the Angsi glacier in southern Tibet. Before entering Assam, it flows through a tectonically complex region of steep slopes and intense rainfall. A high amount of sediment generation and transportation occurs. The abrupt decline in its slope, a little before entering Assam, causes massive sediment deposition and braiding. Landslides during the 1950 earthquake considerably raised the riverbed of Brahmaputra through the immense silt deposits and substantially lowered its drainage capacity. The result is periodic and predictably precarious flooding.
KNP, spread across Golaghat, Karbi Anglong, Nagaon, and Biswanath districts of Assam, has been a World Heritage Site since 1985. The Indian rhinoceros, Bengal tiger, Asian elephant, wild water buffalo, and eastern swamp deer collectively comprise Kaziranga’s Big Five. The vast expanse of grasslands, ~200 wetlands, diverse patches of woods, sandbars and Brahmaputra’s waters make KNP a unique habitat at the junction of two biodiversity hotspots — eastern Himalaya and Indo-Burma.
Preparations start around three months before the anticipated flooding. The KNP authority calls for a multi stakeholder meeting consisting of civil and police administrations from the districts, grassroots NGOs, rural institutions, ecotourism operators, media representatives, and independent conservationists. The meeting gives people a free voice. Resource allocation and delegation of duty are key areas addressed during such meetings. A roadmap to face the flood is inked.
The park’s southern boundary is dotted by over 70 villages, where more than 50,000 people and their livestock live. An active interface exists at KNP’s fringe, where the livestock share space and food with wild herbivores, potentially creating an opportunity for pathogen sharing. A mass immunisation of livestock against infectious diseases like foot and mouth disease (FMD), hemorrhagic septicemia (HS), and black quarter (BQ) is undertaken jointly by the state animal husbandry department, NGOs and KNP.
The linearity of KNP’s boundary has its advantages and disadvantages. While it makes patrolling and surveillance efficient, the highway bordering KNP in the south (NH 715) bisects the park with its saviour, the Karbi Hills. As the water level rises inside the park, the wild animals start a temporary, short-duration migration to the Karbi Hills. With the mushrooming of facilities like schools, resorts, restaurants, newer settlements and rising vehicular traffic load, small pockets of functional corridors exist where wild animals rush through the tarmac.
Elephants use their feet and trunk to assess safety when on the road. Hog deer don’t do very well on the tar road, and they are seen skating, rolling, kneeling and fearfully rushing through the road. Rhinos are unpredictable. Some animals stray into human settlements, and some young ones get separated from their mother. Such incidents call for rescue teams, and the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) helps. By July 15, a fortnight into flooding, CWRC released 133 animals back into the wild out of 154 rescued. During the same period, sadly, 195 animals perished due to drowning. Flood weeds out the sick and senile.
While wild animals head South to Karbi Hills, hundreds of villagers from the fringe of the park carry their belongings and settle down on the highway. Highlands built by The Corbett Foundation in four villages help livestock keepers to safely station hundreds of livestock and their fodder on the highlands. However, not all villages have such highlands. Most conservation narratives worldwide are woven by depicting community and conservation as two opposite poles. However, Kaziranga presents a different story. The local community sometimes protects wild animals independently and often assists the forest department despite their occasional differences. This is organic in evolution and grounded in practice.
Sonali Ghosh, the park’s director, explains that road traffic accidents have always been a concern. Animal Sensor System integrated with traffic control, diverting commercial vehicles through NH 329, regulated speed of all vehicles through a pilot-led mechanism, deployment of infrared drones, and deputation of additional 100 cadets of the 3rd Assam Forest Battalion to form a human chain in strategic locations helped drastically reduce the number of wild animals accidents. From 17 and 22 cases of vehicles hitting wild animals in 2017 and 2020, respectively, the number came down to two deer getting hit as of July 15. A low number of accidents signifies safer animal passage.
Structural measures like embankments, elevated roads, and highlands have limited value in exceptionally high floods. Non-structural measures like afforestation and wetland protection beyond the boundaries of Kaziranga will help as wetlands act like sponges to soak up flood waters.
Floods weed out invasive species like Eichhornia crassipes (water hyacinth). New layers of fertile alluvial soil deposited by floodwaters coat paddy fields, enhancing productivity. Sick, senile and sapped wild animals perish, facilitating natural selection and population control. The communication channels between wetlands inside the park are restored, vital for water availability around the year. Floods also recharge groundwater. There is scope for putting Kaziranga’s annual flooding in its right ecological place amongst common people. A floodplain, like the Okavango Delta in Botswana, the Mekong Delta in Cambodia and Kaziranga in India, survives only if there is recurring flooding. Not all flooding is bad!
Naveen Pandey is deputy director, The Corbett Foundation, Kaziranga, and research scholar at IIT Guwahati.The views expressed are personal
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