Jorhat, June 29: Animals continued to stray out of Kaziranga National Park to take shelter on higher ground today, though floodwaters began to recede.
The Barak river also showed a receding trend in Cachar and Karimganj districts since last night.
The divisional forest officer, D.D. Gogoi, said floodwaters have started receding from the national park and if there was no further rain, the park would be free of water in the next two days.
The police were helping the forest department to ensure that the animals come to no harm.
“Our men are maintaining a strict vigil in and around the national park and especially on the highway,” he added.
Gogoi said the authorities would make an estimate of the damage caused by the floods, including death of animals, after the floodwaters recede.
Altogether 15 deer have died in the last few days, most of them after being hit by speeding vehicles on National Highway 37.
Activists of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, which runs the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) near Kaziranga, have rescued more than 100 animals, mostly deer, in the last couple of days from various parts of the park and its adjoining areas.
An official at the centre said they attended to 26 injured hog deer today, of which four have died because of severe injuries.
“We have released the other 22 deer after providing first aid,” the official said.
He said most of the deer rescued by the centre were hog deer. There are nearly 15,000 of them at the national park.
“We have attended to only one swamp deer yesterday, apart from a rhino calf and an elephant calf,” the official said.
Sources said poachers were having a field day with reports of deer being killed in large numbers in the fringe areas of the park.
Residents of Kuruabahi village near Hatikhuli tea estate located near the national park today apprehended two persons, Binod Kaman and Brojen Kaman, with 12kg of venison.
The duo were handed over to the forest department, and later revealed that they had brought the venison from Binod Saro of Borbeel village.
A Kaziranga official said there were reports of a few incidents of poaching but no arrests have been made so far.
“These villages are inaccessible because of the floods. By the time our men reach these villages on boats, the poachers manage to flee,” the official said.
A mahout, Durja Bauri, was trampled to death by a domesticated elephant of the national park at Mihimukh today.
In the Barak Valley districts, the floodwaters are still flowing above the danger level at 19.83 metres.
It was earlier at the 20.55-metre mark.
According to official sources here, nearly 1,80,000 people were affected in the three districts. The toll in Cachar alone stands at six. Sources said 27 relief camps have been set up in the area.
Nearly 425 passengers of the Down Cachar Express, which was stranded at Harangajao railway station after landslides along the Barail hill range following the torrential downpour since last Tuesday, reached here around 10 last night.
Gurupad Debnath, a passenger, alleged negligence on the part of the railway staff. He said, “We were simply feeling as if we were living in hell. There was no food and medical relief. We were lucky when a train carrying repairmen and labourers of the NF Railway came along. This train carried us to Badarpur.”
Militants of the Dilip Nunisa faction of the Dima Dalam Daogah reportedly tended to the stranded passengers and provided food packets, potable water and some rudimentary medical relief yesterday. Railway sources said the landslides and rains have damaged the tracks along the stretch and that it would take at least three weeks for repairs.
Additional reporting by our Silchar correspondent
