Guwahati,
July 9, IRNA -- At least a dozen endangered wild animals, including
rhinos and elephants, were killed while trying to escape thefury
of the floods in India's northeastern state of Assam, officials
Wednesday said.
A forest department spokesman said
two Asiatic wild elephants were electrocuted Tuesday in the adjoining
Meghalaya
state after the herd strayed away from a reserved forest in western
Assam to escape the floods.
"A 70 to 80 strong elephant herd
was moving towards a forest in Meghalaya from Assam to escape the
floods when two of the animals got trapped in an area where a high
tension electric cable was lying on the ground," the official
said. The two elephants were charred to death upon hitting the
high voltage electric cable.
At least six animals, including a
rhino and a buffalo calf, two
hog deer's and sambars, were drowned inside the renowned Kaziranga
National Park in eastern Assam, 220 kilometers from Assam's capital
Guwahati.
"Floodwaters have covered more
than half of the 430 square kilometer sanctuary," Kaziranga
park warden N.K. Vasu told IRNA by telephone.
Herds of elephants
and rhinos fleeing the park to an adjoining hill nearby to escape
the floods have fallen victims to tribal
poachers.
A few animals were killed by speeding
vehicles as they cross a highway that runs along the park, the
official said.
Kaziranga is home to the world's largest
concentration of one- horned rhinoceros. There are an estimated
1,600 rhinos at Kaziranga out of a total world population of some
2,300 of this thick-skinned pachyderm.
At least 20 persons were
drowned in floods in the northeast, besides displacing more than
1.5 million people.
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