Assam Floods push wildlife to seek shelter in village homes
Dibru Saikhowa National Park, Assam, 13 July 2020:
The annual floods have hit Assam over this weekend and our wildlife rescue teams are on high alert. Rising waters push animals to higher reaches resulting in several mishaps that need veterinary intervention. Amongst the first flood rescues of this year, WTI’s Eastern Assam Mobile Veterinary Service (MVS) Unit saved a distressed hog deer early yesterday morning.
The hog deer had entered a home the previous night at Natungaon village, seeking higher ground as it swum out of the flooded Dibru Saikhowa National Park. Fortunately, this happened to be the residence of the gaonburrah – the village headman, Kushadhar Sonowal and contact with WTI’s MVS was made for rescuing this deer.
Led by Dr. Khanin Changmai, WTI’s wildlife veterinarian, the three-member team with Jaganath Agarwal, Range Officer, Guijan and Raju Teron, WTI’s animal keeper headed out in a wooden boat towards the inundated house.
The deer transportation cage was also taken there in a country boat, essential for the moving the deer to safety.
“The deer was stressed due to floods but was taken good care of by the house owner. He kept it in isolation effectively preventing capture myopathy as we instructed him when we got the rescue call. We reached there at 8 AM today travelling through the flooded Dibru river and were able to release it around 2 PM the same day in the nearest suitable habitat, Borajan Wildlife Sanctuary.” summarized Dr Changmai.
Meanwhile, our veterinarians at the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) that we run with Assam Forest Department and our partners IFAW at Kaziranga National Park has already handled six cases of injured hog deer in a day.
The team is currently with the Kaziranga forest staff, trying to give safe passage to a tiger that has entered a goat shed in a village on the fringes of Kaziranga National Park. Our priority is to keep people and animals safe as the teams on location strategise to give a safe passage to the displaced animal. Click here to read about this tigress that spent a day in a house around the same time last year – a story that broke the internet!
WTI’s Eastern Assam MVS Unit is supported by HCL, but as we brace for more rescues of distressed wildlife displaced by the floods, we would need your support to keep resources readily available in times of natural disasters..
