Forest Department organized meet on flood preparedness in Kaziranga

A CORRESPONDENT

NUMALIGARH: Two subsequent meetings on flood preparedness were organized by the forest department at convention center in Kaziranga on Friday. The first meeting was held with presence of the civil administration and police of the districts of Golaghat and Karbi Anglong. That followed by a second meeting with the NGOs, local organizations and mediapersons. Both the meetings were chaired by M.K. Yadav- P.C.C.F. (Wildlife), Assam. KNP Director- P. Shivakumar, Eastern-Assam wildlife division D.F.O.- Ramesh Kr Gogoi, The Corbett Foundation Deputy Director- Dr Naveen Pandey, Honorary Wildlife Warden of Golaghat- Uttam Saikia along with other representatives from various organizations and other forest officials were also present in the meeting.

In the meeting, PCCF (Wildlife) M.K. Yadav said that due to COVID-19 and African Swine Flu, the task during the flood this year is going to be challenging. Yadav urged for community support and said it would be essential.

Various matters like pre-flood management, approaches to be adopted during flood were discussed in the meeting. D.F.O. Ramesh Kr Gogoi said that more subsequent meeting will be organized in Nagaon district in the coming days to discuss various issues with the rest of the organizations on flood preparedness

Speaking to the Sentinel, TCF Deputy Director said, "The number of casualties came down to 220 in the flood of 2019, from 401 in the previous flood of 2017. These strategies taken in 2019 need to be studied and published so that all the stakeholders can identify their roles and contribute again."

In the meeting, forest officials said that camera traps will be used in all the animal corridors alongside NH-37 for a safe passage of wild animals towards the adjoining Karbi hills. Honorary wildlife warden of Golaghat district Uttam Saikia appreciated this effort of the forest department and said that many other new strategies will be adopted this year due to the present scenario of COVID-19 pandemic. 

Also Read: Western Range Biswanath Wildlife Division, Kaziranga Tiger Reserve found Carcass of Rhino

Also Watch: Quick Shoppe in Guwahati takes precautionary measures against the spread of Coronavirus