Monsoons bring floods from Himalayas to the Bengal coast

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008:

 

 

Monsoons bring floods from Himalayas to the Bengal coast

 

KOLKATA, VISAKHAPATAM--Increasingly violent monsoons

battered India yet again in August and September 2008, afflicting

millions of humans and animals in regions below the Himalayas from

northern Bihar to central Arunchal Pradesh, and as far south as

Srikakulum, halfway down the Bengal coast.

The Visakha SPCA in Visakhapatnam sent animal relief missions

from northern Andhra Pradesh, as it did after previous monsoon

floods and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

" We are in touch with our people at Srikakulum, " founder

Pradeep Kumar Nath e-mailed. " We are doing rescues wherever possible

and shifting [animals to safety] wherever necessary. "

The Visakha SPCA has itself been hit several times by

cyclones in recent years.

The monsoon flooding added to accumulations of water left by

the tail of Cyclone Nargis in May 2008. Cyclone Nargis killed more

than 146,000 people and 48 million animals in Myanmar, occasioning

the World Society for the Protection of Animals, International Fund

for Animal Welfare, and Wildlife Friends of Thailand to mount the

first international animal relief expedition to Myanmar ever, under

auspices of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Program.

India, across the Bay of Bengal, suffered relatively light

damage from Nargis, but bridges were washed out in parts of southern

coastal Orissa and northern coastal Andhra Pradesh, disrupting rail

traffic for more than a month, and leaving the region unusually

vulnerable to further catastrophe.

More than half of Orissa had experienced flooding by

Sept-ember 23. The Orissa state director of animal husbandry told

Nath that approximately 650,000 large domestic animals, 620,000

small domestic animals, and 212,000 poultry were in urgent need of

help. Twenty-eight veterinarians and 46 para-veterinarians had

vaccinated nearly 570,000 animals against diseases that might result

from the flooding, and had treated 8,317 animals for flood-related

illness and injury.

Some of the flooding was predictable. The Brahmaputra, the

largest river in northeastern India, again submerged Kaziranga

National Park, an almost annual occurrence. As in past years,

animals including hog deer, elephants, and highly endangered Asian

rhinoceroses fled Kaziranga to higher ground, requiring them to

cross National Highway 37, the busiest east/west route in the

region. At least six hog deer were road-killed, The Hindu reported.

Eight of the 1,855 rhinos who were believed to have lived in

Kaziranga were found dead, The Hindu added on September 11, 2008,

but noted that the toll was far below those of 1988 and 1998. The

1988 flooding killed 38 rhinos, 1,050 deer, 69 boar, three baby

elephants, and two tigers. The 1998 toll included a record 44

rhinos.

Media commentators were almost unanimous that flooding along

the Kosi River could have been predicted and prevended. The Kosi,

flowing from eastern Nepal across northern Bihar to the Ganges,

drains much of the central Himalayas, and is notorious for rapidly

inundating dams and levees with silt--or smashing them with rolling

boulders. Governments in both Nepal and India have for more than 60

years campaigned to harness the Kosi with bigger dams, while

ecologists are increasingly convinced that the best way to avoid

flooding is to let the Kosi run free.

The debate was revived by one of the first disasters of the

2008 monsoon season, an August 18 levee break near Kusaha, Nepal,

which killed at least 80 people and allowed the river to reclaim

three old courses, eventually displacing as many as 2.7 million

people and more than a million livestock.

" All Bihar nongovernmental organizations, honorary animal

welfare officers and members have been requested to participate in

the animal rescue operations and apply to the Animal Welfare Board of

India for financial assistance under our Natural Calamity Scheme, "

said AWBI secretary D. Rajasekar. " Interested NGOs from other states

are also requested to participate. "

A relief expedition mounted by the Wildlife Trust of India

and International Fund for Animal Welfare reported treating about

6,000 cattle, but noted that at least 24,000 were stranded in the

same vicinity, beyond reach. The Andhra Pradesh cow protection

organization Rastriya Ahimsa Manch sent a relief team to Madhepura

and Saharsa, with feed and medicines, unaware that Andra Pradesh

would also soon need help.

The World Society for the Protection of Animals " has been in

the field in Bihar for almost two weeks conducting assessment and

building a response platform, " e-mailed WSPA disaster response team

leader Tim Myers on September 10. " During this term the team has

also treated sick and injured animals at relief camps where

appropriate, " Myers added.

The WSPA team was initially directed by WSPA veterinarian

Ashish Sutar, and later by Animal Help Ahmedabad founder Rahul

Sehgal, sent by the Humane Society International division of the

Humane Society of the U.S.

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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