Nine rare one-horned rhinos died in the last ten days at the Kaziranga National Park in Assam. Heavy rain and floods have killed deer, buffalos, wild boars and other animals in the north-eastern state of India.
“Nine rhinos have drowned and over 100 other animals have been killed,” Atul Bora, Assam’s agriculture minister told Reuters.
With the park waist-deep in water, rhinos, elephants and deer have been forced to seek refuge on roads and in human settlements.
Floods have inundated the Kaziranga National Park, home to the world’s largest concentration of one-horned rhinoceros, with an estimated 2,500 out of a total population of some 3,000 of the animals.
Officials warned that the water level in the Brahmaputra river was expected to rise by 11 cm (4.3 inches), two weeks after it burst its banks swamping more than 2,500 villages.
Assam, famous for its tea plantations, is hit by flooding every rainy season despite flood-control efforts.
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