Dibru-Saikhowa, Nov. 7: The Dibru-Saikhowa National Park, one of the high-profile “biodiversity hotspots” in the country, is facing the scourge of erosion from the Dibru river, which a major tributary of the Brahmaputra.

The entire park gets flooded, resulting in widespread erosion and deposition of silt, as there are frequent changes in the courses of rivers and streams.

Situated on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra, it was designated as a biosphere reserve in 1997 and declared a national park in 1999.

Vast areas of the park are still flooded. Officials said nothing had changed in the four years since the national park status was bestowed.

“Seasonal floods are common and every year almost the entire area gets flooded, resulting in largescale erosion,” Ranjan Dutta, ranger of Guijan range told The Telegraph.

Dutta said apart from the Brahmaputra, a number of perennial and seasonal feeder streams like the Kolomi, Salbeel Nala, Dadhia Nala, Chabru Nadi, Laikajan and Ananta Nala, criss-crossed the core area of the biosphere reserve. Steps have to be taken on a war-footing to save the park from further erosion, he said. The Kaziranga National Park has lost more than 20 square km to erosion in the past two decades.

Official sources said the Central Water Commission (CWC) had sanctioned Rs 13.5 crore for the Hatighuli-Dholai project and Rs 340 crore for Rohmoria. Work on the former is expected to begin shortly.

“These two projects will definitely prevent further degradation of the 340-square km park,” Dutta said. The annual rainfall ranges from 2,300 mm to 3,800 mm. The original tropical wet evergreen forests were destroyed in the “great Assam earthquake” of 1950 and the vegetation, too, has undergone changes.

The core area has about 35.8 per cent of moist mixed forest, 9.5 per cent of degraded forests, 21.3 per cent of Savanna grasslands, 17.1 per cent of sandy cover, 4.1 per cent of barren land and 18 per cent cultivated land.