Animal activists scurry to save animals from floods in Assam’s Kaziranga National Park

CHENNAIAugust 2: Animal activists flew from Chennai to Guwahati to lend a hand to forest department officials struggling with the floods in the 420 sq km Kaziranga National Park (KNP) in Assam.Three animal activists from Chennai spent all of Monday sourcing ‘lactogen’ for rhinoceros and elephant calves that have lost their mothers to the heavy rains.

Shravan Krishnan, Nishanth Ravi and Robin Paul took a flight to assist in the relief work at KNP that has lost over 218 animals to drowning in the past seven days. The major need of the hour to keep these young animals alive is lactogen, which is a Milk substitute.

To give you an idea of quantity,  40 packets of lactogen are needed per day, at the cost of `300 a packet. And thanks to these good samaritans, who have managed to get in touch with a local distributor, a bulk order should be arriving on Wednesday. “But the Park is still heavily in need for funding for lactogen, so we urge people to come forward and sponsor what they can,” says a concerned Shravan, Barely audible through a scratchy signal in the forestThese lads have taken to social media to raise much needed funds for the animals. “So far nine rhino calves and 11 elephant calves have been rescued. And it’s terribly sad to see them scared or injured. some are as young as a month old,” says Shravan.

They got in touch with friends who connected them to the Park authorities. “They have only six veterinary doctors there and they have been working without sleep for three days. We will be relieving them and helping rehabilitate the animals,” he adds.

Rhinos, swamp deer and hog deer are amongst the survivors now.

“A Royal Bengal Tiger has also been displaced and is quite close to the settlements outside so we will be on a rescue mission tomorrow to bring it back so that there is no trouble,” he explains.

The trio had also collected 14 cartons of relief material for people, like blankets and medicine, and would have carried it to Assam except the airline stopped them. “We were only able to bring 5 cartons but the 42 kg we left behind will arrive soon as the airline has promised to have it sent on the next flight,” he said hopefully.

To contribute relief materials, contact 9841588852.