Flooding, management both vital for Kaziranga Naveen Pandey, Hindustan Times July 18, 2024 There is scope for putting Kaziranga’s annual flooding in its right ecological place. From replenishing channels between wetlands to aiding natural selection of a healthier stock as weak animals perish, floods serve a vital purpose The edges of the country boat nearly kissed the flooded water of Sohola beel in Assam’s Kaziranga National Park (KNP) as the forester-boatman kept pulling the oar. A male rhino on the little grassy patch lifted its heavy head, responding to our smell carried by the wind. Another rhino pulled through the deep waters, flapping its ears and snorting. A couple of hornbills frolicked through the woods and a grey-headed fish eagle on a tree meditated along the edge of the wetland. Despite these animals making the ambience lively, an eerie silence enveloped the horizon. It was marked by the vastness of Brahmaputra’s silt-laden water. The beel (wetland) merged with the mighty Brahmaputra to form an inland ocean. Flooding in KNP is an annual ritual, reflecting the hydrological adventures of the Brahmaputra, a transboundary river springing from the Angsi glacier in southern Tibet. Before entering Assam, it flows through a tectonically complex region of steep slopes and intense rainfall. A high amount of sediment generation and transportation occurs. The abrupt decline in its slope, a little before entering Assam, causes massive sediment deposition and braiding. Landslides during the 1950 earthquake considerably raised the riverbed of Brahmaputra through the immense silt deposits and substantially lowered its drainage capacity. The result is periodic and predictably precarious flooding. KNP, spread across Golaghat, Karbi Anglong, Nagaon, and Biswanath districts of Assam, has been a World Heritage Site since 1985. The Indian rhinoceros, Bengal tiger, Asian elephant, wild water buffalo, and eastern swamp deer collectively comprise Kaziranga’s Big Five. The vast expanse of grasslands, ~200 wetlands, diverse patches of woods, sandbars and Brahmaputra’s waters make KNP a unique habitat at the junction of two biodiversity hotspots — eastern Himalaya and Indo-Burma. https://www.hindustantimes.com/opinion/flooding-management-both-vital-for-kaziranga-101721316874156.html