Assam will set up four wildlife police stations to exclusively deal with the problem of rhino poaching and other wildlife crimes.

It is the country’s longest road project under PMGSY

The Centre has cleared the 157 km Miao-Vijaynagar road project that will connect the remote Vijaynagar circle in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh along the India-Myanmar border, 100 km of it passing through the Namdapha National Park.

Minister says delay is due to adverse weather and hurdles in land acquisition

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways C.P. Joshi on Tuesday revealed that only 100 km of the 2,400-km Trans-Arunachal Highway announced under the Prime Minister’s package for Arunachal Pradesh had been completed so far. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced the project in Itanagar on January 31, 2008. The Trans-Arunachal (declared as National Highway 229) highway from Tawang to Mahadevpur will pass through Bomdila, Nechipur, Seppa, Sagalee, Ziro, Daporijo, Along, Pasighat, Roing, Teju, Mahadevpur, Namchik, Changlang, Khonsa and Kanubari. The project components include construction of two-lane feeder roads connecting all district headquarters.

Army to be deployed in Karbi Anglong hills; Centre takes serious view of situation

Two more rhinoceroses were shot at by poachers in the Kaziranga National Park on Thursday in two separate incidents. These took place in Karbi Anglong district, one near Kuthori around 4.15 a.m. and the other around 12.30 p.m. in the Jagadamba tea estate. The poachers took away the horns of the rhinos. In the first incident the rhino was found dead, while in the second, the victim was found battling for life, bleeding and writhing in pain. Both mammals had strayed out of flooded areas of the national park, which is also a World Heritage Site, and were moving in the foothills outside the notified area of the park.

The flood situation in central and lower Assam turned critical, with the water level of the Brahmaputra rising alarmingly and flowing above the danger mark in most places. The situation continued to be grim in upper Assam too. The death toll in the current wave of the flood has gone up to 18 and seven persons were reported missing on Tuesday.

As over 17.60 lakh flood-hit people, including about four lakh of them in relief camps, suffered in 16 affected districts, food packets were dropped by the Army and Indian Air Force helicopters in some of worst-hit areas such as the Majuli river-island in upper Assam's Jorhat district, Sootea in Sonitpur district, Sadiya sub-division in upper Assam's Tinsukia district.

Floating carcasses being recovered everyday

Altogether 538 animals, including 13 rhinos, of the Kaziranga National Park, have been killed in the devastating Assam floods and the death toll is mounting with the KNP authorities of this World Heritage Site recovering more floating carcasses everyday. The floods have also damaged roads and other infrastructure in the park, which is famous for the one-horned rhino. Even amidst the floods, two rhinos were killed by poachers. The floods have claimed 100 human lives, while 16 others died due to landslip in the State. Of these, 56 are children.

The death toll in the Assam floods has gone up to 61, while landslips have claimed the lives of 16. Besides, 10 others were reported missing in four districts. Of the 16 landslip deaths, 10 died in the city and six in Dima Hasao district.

An earthquake of5.8 magnitude, with its epicenter at Phek in Nagaland, rocked the State on Sunday around 9.44 a.m. There was, however, no report of any damage.

Nearly 70 per cent of the Kaziranga National Park was flooded in the current spell of rains, which claimed the lives of two rhinos and 22 hog deer. Speeding vehicles killed 17 hog deer till Friday. The park authorities have so far rescued and released 56 hog deer and eight swamp deer.

KNP Director Sanjib Kumar Bora told The Hindu that the magnitude of the flood in the park this time was higher than that of 2004, but all efforts were on to protect the wild animals from the flood fury.

The high-density reserve covers 1,000 square kilometers

“Kaziranga is one of the highest density tiger habitats in the country and has a healthy breeding source population,” says a report released on Monday. It has over 100 tigers, the estimate based on the annual monitoring carried out in 2009, 2010 and 2011 using the camera trap method.

The Manas National Park in Assam on Monday received four rhinos, in the first translocation from Kaziranga, which has the largest population of one-horned rhinos in the world.

Three females and a male — translocated under the Indian Rhino Vision 2020 programme — were released in Manas around 7 a.m. “They are doing fine,” P.K. Brahma, Range Officer, Manas National Park told The Hindu . The total number of rhinos it has received has now gone up to 16, including 14 translocated ones.